


For Birds and Bugs

by lonely_pinqueen



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste Needs Help, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Bashing, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Identity Reveal, Alya Césaire Bashing, Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Class Issues, Daminette - Relationship - Freeform, F/M, Good Grandparent Alfred Pennyworth, How Do I Tag, Lila Rossi Bashing, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Identity Reveal, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Protective Jason Todd, m - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-15
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:07:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 37,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24738973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lonely_pinqueen/pseuds/lonely_pinqueen
Summary: I can't write summaries so this is just Daminette one-shots.
Relationships: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Damian Wayne, Nino Lahiffe/Lê Chiến Kim
Comments: 105
Kudos: 636





	1. No more secrets

Marinette sighed as she carefully walked her way down her condos dark hallway. She had just awakened from what had sounded like a faint noise coming from within the living room area. It had sounded rather heavy to be any of the plant life that she tended to bring inside during the nights-- it is a habit she picked up once one of Gotham's vigilantes had accidentally knocked down one of her pots while in the pressure of one of their many escapees from Arkham Asylum.

She paused for a short while at the end of the dark hallway. She wasn't too sure as to what she was seeing but was pretty sure the dark lump before her open balcony sliding door (which had been closed before going to bed. She had made sure three times) was a human body seemingly struggling with righting themselves back up. In a panic, Marinette reached for the bat leaned against the wall leading into the living room before throwing on the light switch above said bat.

The sight at what greeted her caused an alarmed gasp to fall from her lips and for the bat to fall from her hold. What she was looking at was one of the caped vigilantes bleeding out on her hardwood flooring as he struggled with standing back up.

The masked man let out a painful groan once he managed to righten himself onto his knees. "Angel-" he cut off before he could finish what he was attempting to say as he then promptly passed out and fell to his side with a loud thud.

The nickname that fell from the vigilante's lips caught Marinette by surprise. For only one person that she knew in her personal life had ever called her such a name and was really the only person that she allowed for the use of nicknames with (his second oldest brother close behind). Breaking away from the shock, Marinette quickly ran over to the fallen caped young man and carefully turned him onto his back now allowing for the source of the cause of all the blood to become visible.

With her shock finally fading out, Marinette opened and closed her mouth a few times before letting out a rushed, "Ro-DAMIAN?!" She yelped out as she dove to the floor in a panic. With a worrying whimper falling from her lips, Marinette lifted her trembling hands from her boyfriend's limp form before hurriedly running over for her phone to quickly call for help and thankfully the person on the other end answered within the first ring.

"Mari-" A tired male voice called from the other end but was promptly interrupted by the panicked voice of his friend.

"Jon, I need you to get over here right now! Damian's bleeding out on the floor and with my knowledge of him being the Robin I can only assume you're Superboy, so get your super ass over here!" Marinette demanded as she rushed back over to her still bleeding boyfriend and instantly applied pressure to the wound in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Within what felt like years of the call ending but was really only a few short seconds was when Jon soon flew in through the still opened baloney slide door and cursed at the sight of his friend in both crime-fighting and personal life.

"Fuck, okay I'll be right back!" The panicked blue-eyed male quickly but carefully lifted up his bleeding out friends in his arms before flying back out of the condo, leaving behind a shaking Marinette who was still sitting in a puddle of her boyfriend's own blood.

After a couple of more minutes of sitting on her knees, Marinette soon shook herself out of her busy head full of questions. She carefully stood and made her way into the kitchen to grab cleaning supplies from underneath her kitchen sink. She was hoping that cleaning up the hardwood flooring of blood wouldn't take too long, or that her young super friend wouldn't get here before the mess was up, for she knew that she would instantly jump into his arms and demand that he take her to the Wayne Manor at once.

-

"How long did everyone plan on keeping their"secret" identities from me?" Everyone in the Batcave but Alfred flinched. They all knew that keeping such a big secret from the French-Asian girl wasn't one of their brightest of ideas, but if they were being honest with themselves, it's become rather a habit of keeping their nighttime hobbies away from the ones that the loved who weren't hero themselves.

Marinette could tell from their tense shoulders that the other seven people in the cave didn't plan on speaking up. Their guilt was already eating up at them as it is. She sighed and her bluebell eyes softened as she looked at each and every one of the Wayne family. "Look, I'm not mad if anything I totally get it, " Her blue eyes sifted from the others and looked down upon her boyfriend who had been laid out on a table and attached to an IV drip, "having this life is dangerous. You guys wanted to keep me safe and out of harm's way... But I myself have been keeping something from all of you." The team of vigilantes plus one super all looked at the short blue-eyed girl stood before them. They hadn't expected they're seemingly innocent and fun-loving friend to live such a life of their own.

"Whatever do you mean Pixie?" The voice of Jason called out as he raised one of his dark eyebrows up in confusion. The look and question causing for Marinette to let out a soft laugh. "Take a seat, it'll be a while." And so everyone but Alfred had made themselves as comfortable as they could inside of the Batcave. "Well, to start things off I guess I need to introduce you to Tikki and Plagg." Marinette opened up her purse that hung from her side, allowing for small fairy-like creatures to fly on out into the sight of the others.

-

After a solid hour of explaining the events of her teenage years and answering the many questions that the Wayne family had to give. The family soon left as the answers began to repeat themselves and leaving Marinette to sit beside the table that still held her unconscious boyfriend. She let out a sigh and leaned back into the chair she sat in and rubbed at her tired eyes. "After this, no more secrets." A chuckle sounded out after she had spoken those words causing a started yelp and for Marinette to nearly fall out of her seat. After coming down from her slight scare, the French-Asian woman looked on over to her boyfriend who was trying his hardest to keep a smile from spreading across his lips.

"Yes, very funny scare me twice in three hours." She rolled her eyes fondly and stood to help the youngest Wayne sit upright on the operating table he'd been motionless on for three hours before.

"Believe it or not," he grunted slightly as she rolled his shoulders to try and lessen the tension from his muscles, "this isn't how I planned on revealing myself as Robin." Damian set his famous glare across his face as he looked down upon his sweater-clad lap and clutched at the fabric with his fists. He wasn't lying, he had planned on doing something less dramatic and with less blood but his planning never seems to go into favor him.

The two sat in silence for a good few minutes, both of them trying to gather their thoughts and to think carefully of what they were to say next. Damian was mainly scared that Marinette would scream and hit at him for keeping such a secret and Marinette was just worried overall about how many times the entirety of the Bat-family has nearly died. And they went on like this for several long minutes, running on nearly an hour if they had to be honest before one of them finally broke and cut through the deafening quiet.

Surprising both of the young adults, Damian was the first one to speak up, his voice going from it's normally loud and confident sound to a gentle and nearly quiet tone. "So it's agreed, no more secrets after this?" They both smiled softly at each other as they nodded their heads.

"Of course, us hero's gotta stick together, don't we?"


	2. A well deserved punch (pt.1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Au where Jason and Marinette are blood siblings

* * *

"Nothing screams home like the polluted skies of Gotham city." Those were the first words to leave Marinette's lips as she stepped foot into the gloomy outside of the hotel her class would be staying in for their month-long class trip. She hadn't been planning on coming back to the crime-ridden city, not since her brother had died, but Ms. Bustier didn't leave much room for convincing, especially when it came to the likes of Lila and her lies but the young half Asian girl didn't let that phase her much, she kept to the positives, like being able to visit her godfather.

"Now, why would my favorite little bug have such a big frown upon her face?" The voice of her godfather breaking her out of her thoughts. She instantly turned and threw herself into the older man's arms, arms of which instantly caught the small teenager and pulled her into a hug of his own.

"Uncle Jim!" She laughed happily as he carefully began to spin around before carefully placing Marinette back down onto her feet and stepping back to get a better look at the young girl he hadn't seen in person for almost ten years. He let out a chuckle as he pushed up his glasses. "It seems you haven't grown much since I last saw you..." Gordan had trailed off on his sentence as the all too dark memories of Marinette's last time in the city had been of her older brother's death and her adoption into the Dupain-Cheng family having gone through the court systems after two years of the French couple filing for her adoption. 

Wide blue eyes took on a faraway look that could only haunt the police commissioner to his very core. He never did like seeing such a look in Marinette's beautiful blues, but it seems that such a look will always find its way back into her clear eyes. "Come on, I did promise to stop by the precinct so everyone could say hello to you."

-

The rest of their day went by in a flash, Gordan taking Marinette to a lot of her favorite spots from when she was younger. They even dropped by and hung out with Barbra for almost a whole hour before the teenager was needed back at the hotel for dinner with her class.

"Thank you again, Uncle Jim." Jim ruffled the bluenette's hair and smiled back at her. He's forgotten the last time he's smiled as much as he has today, but he wasn't going to dwell on that, for right now he was going to focus on his goddaughter.

"It's no problem kid, and remember if you have any problems of which you informed me of with your class while here, call me up and you'll stay with me for the rest of your time here." When the topic of the school had come up between the two, Marinette had instantly tensed up and looked down at her lap. The inner cop in Jim had nearly jumped out but he held back and waited until his goddaughter was comfortable enough to speak about it on her own terms and when she had he had expected tears, but none ever made an appearance in her blue eyes, and it had worried him, for Marinette had always been a sensitive child.

"I will, pinky promise."

The two exchanged hugs and one last goodbye before the police commissioner left the hotel lobby leaving Marinette in peaceful silence, but said silence could never last too long for the blue-eyed girl.

"I guess Mari-slut just can't stay away from men and older men at that!" The snide remark of Lila carried out through the lobby causing the crowd of French students to snicker or to look on at the Asian girl in disgust, but Marinette wasn't going to allow them to bring her down, not in her own city. So, growing a smile and determination in her clear blue eyes, Marinette marched her way over towards the Italian Burnett and glared daggers onto her.

"Lila, that man you 'claim' to be my lover without any proof just so happens to be my godfather." The taller Italian stepped back in surprise at the confidence that radiated from the shorter teen. The green-eyed lier hadn't expected for Marinette to even stand up to her, but it seems that being within a city as gloomy and crime-ridden as Gotham brought something out of the half Asian girl that she'd never seen before, but she wasn't about to let some goodie-two-shoes get the better of her, not now that the empire she's built within the class of dimwitted students was so strong.

The other students looked on in a daze. They didn't know whether or not to pull Lila away from the bully or to allow Lila to walk away from themselves, and before they could really step up was when Marinette spoke up.

"I'd watch your back, every one of you. We are now in my city. A city of which will kill you without any Ladybug to bring you back." And with that, the short blue-eyed girl walked away and into the elevator.

-

A few days pass, and then came the day of the Wayne Enterprise tour. The class and Lila had chosen to ignore Marinette for the time being and she couldn't be any happier for that fact. For she had more time to herself to sketch out new commissions and more free time to allow Tiki out of her purse without any interruption from anyone demanding her of assistant or accusing her of harassing Lila in some way or another.

"I'm just disappointed that Bruce had to be on a business trip." Why after two peaceful days of no lies did Lila have to start them back up and inside the very building where she was likely to make a fool of herself. This was sure to become a disaster on its own. "But no worries, I can set something up for you some other time Alya." Marinette rolled her eyes and sighed at her former best friend's apparent lack of a lie detector. Mr. Wayne had stated through email that he would remain in the city while he hosted the French classes trip, Marinette even made sure the class knew of his words.

"Do they really believe everything she says?"

Blue eyes widen at the sudden break in her thoughts from the newcomer, causing for Marinette to jump a foot off of the ground. The man- no teenager found such an action amusing and laughed as he ran his fingers through his hair. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you, I'm Tim the tour guide for your class." Tim offers his hand out for a shake with a slight smile to his lips. Marinette could tell he was lying. The tour guide was supposed to be Dick, whom of which she counted as a second brother. She didn't ask any questions knowing that something probably came up, so she put on a smile and took Tim's hand into her own and gave a firm shake.

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng-" She spoke with confidence in her voice as her blue eyes gleamed up into equally, but cloudy blue eyes. "I'm the class president and I do apologize for the lying going around."

Tim smiled politely at her before turning his attention to the class. He soon called out to grab the attention of the others, "My name is Tim and I will be your tour guide for the day. I would like to inform you that we will be having a bodyguard join us, it's mainly because we don't want to risk an attack from the Rouge's or any escapes for Arkham." The class gathered around Tim with widening eyes, seeming to now take notice of just how dangerous Gotham was. Their attention though soon sifted to the sound of approaching footsteps nearing Marinette's left side.

"Name's Jason, I'll be your bodyguard."

Marinette's world soon went blurry.

-

That voice, she knew that voice anywhere. Yes, it may have changed with age, but it was still the voice of her brother. The boy who would protect her from their father's beatings or beating from the strays on the street. It belongs to the boy who made sure the little blue-eyed girl had a meal before her every day. It was the same voice of the teenager who had died when she was seven. With a shake in her steps and blurry vision, Marinette turned to look up at her once dead brother.

Even through her teary vision, she could see the moment that Jason recognized her. For the young man flinched slightly as his own blue eyes clouded in shame.

"You died." J

mouth opened and closed, he couldn't speak. He couldn't think because before him was the very girl he had promised to always protect, but he had failed such promise. He became too scared to face his sister after awakening from the Lazareth pit.

"You died, and you left me on my own for ten years! Where were you when I need you the most! Where was my big brother!" Jason flinched once again, he even tried hiding behind Tim's back, but his replacement wasn't having it. He knew he deserved his pixies out range but he was never too keen on experiencing it.

"Pixie I-" the shorter girl cut him off before he could even finish what he was saying. "Don't you dare fucking pixie pop me, Jason Peter Todd!" Marinette gasped out and let out a sob as she hid her face in her hands. Her body trembling from pent-up rage and frustration.

Everyone within the lobby of Wayne Enterprise was tuned in on the scene at hand. Some brave enough to have their phones out recording the whole affair going down, while others looked on in astonishment as the small girl continued to yell at Jason Todd. Even the class was blown away at the outburst. Marinette normally had the most control over her emotions, so seeing the Asian girl crumble before the very man to be her brother was all a shock to them.

"Does Uncle Jim know, does Dick know! Who all knows and didn't tell me? Who all made me believe you were dead for ten years!?" Everyone was practically on their toes. They watched as the short bluenett, who was still crying into her hands and stood hunched over on skating legs that looked as if they were to give out any minute.

They watched onaon Jason took careful steps towards his sister. He looked as if he were going to wrap her in his arms and hug her, but he was stopped as a fist shot out and struck him in the nose, and from the blood now running down his nose, the smaller girl most likely broke it.

"Ow, fuck!" 

The entire room held their breath after the punch had been blown. They sat waiting to see what would happen next. They waited to see if Jason would drag the girl out of the building or if the girl would strike the other once more. But neither of those happened. What happened next only further their surprise.

"Oh god- Jay-Jay, I'm so sorry." Marinette brought shaking hands up to her brother's face in worry. She may be mad at him but her caring nature will always shine through, no matter the situation she's in.

"S'fine Pixie." Jason chuckled and pulled the shaking teenager into his arms, being careful not to get his nose blood onto her midnight black hair. "I deserved it. God do I deserve that." He finally let himself cry as well further shocking everyone taking a witness to the reunion.

"Missed you so much Nette. Never a day went by that I wasn't thinking about my baby sister and whether or not I was doing the right thing in keeping you away. I was so fucked up after I- after I died, so much so I didn't want you to see me. To know that me, so I never reached out. I just recently got better, and I was, I promise I was going to tell- I was. And I do, I deserved that punch to the nose." Marinette pulled away from the hug and smiled softly at her brother.

"I get it, but just so you know, I'm punching Dick and Bruce when I see them."


	3. Throwing the punches (pt.2)

  
After the events in Wayne Enterprise, Marinette had hidden away in her hotel room. She didn't let anyone in, not even Nino. She needed time to herself to wrap her brain around the fact that her older brother, Jason was still alive. After all these years of thinking that her only tie to the city of crime through blood had been dead. He, in the end, had been holding her in his arms only twenty-four hours ago. It was almost impossible to believe, but then again, the impossible wasn't all that impossible for the Asian girl sat in the middle of her hotel bed as a red fairy-like creature sat atop her midnight blue-black hair.

"Why did he feel so, so wrong... Like there was too much darkness hugging onto him... It was almost suffocating."

The small kwami sighed and flew down to become eye level with her holder. The small goddess had felt such power before. It was the power of pure rage, such rage could only be born through a life being brought back through the pit of Lazarus.

The Lazarus Pit was a mistake. Something that not should have never happened and something that both Tiki and Plagg had come to greatly regret. At one point in history, there had been over a hundred other pits like the one that had resurrected Jason from his eternal sleep and they had all been spread out across the world. For they had all been too powerful to ever meet. The first time the gods of creation and destruction had even seen the pit ever be used had been a dark day indeed and it resulted in the birth of a man far more dangerous and deadlier than Hawkmoth would ever imagine being.

The birth of the demon had been a dark day indeed and had set in motion the destruction of all of the pits. Well, all but one it would seem.

"It's the magic of the Lazarus Pit. Something that Plagg and I stupidly created centuries before human life. And then centuries later thought we had destroyed all of. The pit is a mixture of our powers combined. It can bring back a life that has been taken but at a price. For whoever dips into the pool would lose a part of their soul, or lose it completely. Leaving behind only rage and destruction."

Marinette's blues eyes widened and her body tensed up. Just thinking about how her brother dying, in general, had sent her into a whole year of depression where she hadn't spoken to anyone but her parents when needed and they had understood. They had met Marinette's older brother, had had him stay in their home in Gotham while the adoption process with Marinette had been taking place, and they had fallen in love with the Wayne son.

Her year of silence had in a way made her stronger. It didn't exactly heal her completely. Nothing would've ever healed her from a death of a loved one not even the knowledge of the Lazarus Pits abilities took away the aching she had felt in her heart, and still feels in her heart from being away from her older brothers safe arms, but she would have to continue living her life with that aching in her heart.

"So, so that's the reason as to why he never reached out." Marinette sighed and rubbed at her forehead. She fell back flat onto her mattress and let out another breath of air. Her blue eyes began to tear up a bit as she gripped at her loose hair.

"I'm sorry if what I said upset you."

Tiki flew on down and landed upon the teenager's chest and frowned slightly. The small kwami had her worries of telling her holder about the pits and what she would think.

Her thoughts were interrupted with a gentle laugh that tried it's hardest to take away the tears.

"No, no you didn't upset me. You and Plagg made something you didn't know the consequences of beforehand and you two learned from that and tried your best at destroying the results of said creation. So, of course, I'm not upset, and if I'm being honest here, I'm kind of glad the last one wasn't destroyed because even though my brother maybe a bit broken, he still loves me enough to know when he's too messed up to see me, but now I need to be there for him now that I know he's alive.

"It's my turn now to keep him safe and to make sure that he himself is doing alright."

The two smiled at one another. They both knew that nothing was alright and that Marinette would need to heal greatly from the lies that had been going around since Jason had come back from the dead, but they would get there, and that's all that mattered.

-

"I'm sorry, but how did you not know that the class. The class that you are hosting was Marinette's classroom, Bruce!? Or did you have Tim look over everything himself." The Wayne family stood in the family room of the Manor as they waited for the class full of French students to arrive for their brunch in with the family sponsoring their trip.

At the very moment, both Bruce and Dick stood awkwardly in the middle of the room as the rest of the family sat around staring at the moment at hand take place. Never in all of their lives had anyone seen Bruce Wayne blush out of embarrassment. They themselves are pretty sure they had never even seen an emotion besides brooding fall upon the dark knight's features, but here they all were, paying up their lost bets to a smug Tim Drake who held out his hand in triumph.

"Actually, if I remember correctly, Bruce was actually away on League business at the time of all the schools around the world began to apply of the position, and of course I've never seen any pictures of your sister, so I picked the school with the best professionally well written out there essay, and the essay itself was written by Marinette herself."

Jason nodded his head and smiles softly. He knew his little sister was smart. She always had been, even before Bruce had taken them in, and the Dupain-Cheng's began their adoption process with Marinette. The little blue-eyed girl had been one of the smartest of the street rat kids in all of Gotham. She had even made it a personal goal of hers to help the other homeless children with their studies as well. Her smarts are what convinced Jason to do his hardest in making sure she stayed in school. He had fought tooth and nail to get her into one of the best schools in the slums of Gotham, and he had.

"Of course it was, she was always one of the smartest people I had known." Bruce and Dick could only agree with what Jason had to say for they themselves had seen first hand on what the then seven-year-old girl could do when it came to almost every school subject taught to her. The rest of the family looked on as the three men stood in the middle of the room. They had all, in some form heard of Marinette in passing. They didn't know much, they only knew bits and pieces of the younger sister of the second oldest seeing as the younger girl had always seemed like a sensitive topic to her only worthy mentioning blood relative.

"Well, I believe our guests have arrived."

Everyone turned at Tim's voice and looked on towards the open entryway that showed the view into the parlor, giving away to the sight of awed foreign students whose heads were turned upwards towards the ceiling, or nearly taking a full 180 turn.

"Let's get this show on the road."

-

Marinette took in a deep breath as she stepped out of the bus and onto the front lawn of the Wayne Manor. She tried her hardest at blocking out the sounds of the all too familiar lies spilling their ways into her classmate's ears and focused more on the large double doors of the mansion opening up to reveal an aged face greeting her with the gentlest of smiles on his face.

"Ms. Marinette." He greeted kindly and bowed slightly at the blue-eyed girl who's returned a smile to the butler herself.

"Grandpa Alfred, it's great to see you again."

Alfred smiled even brighter at the use of grandpa. The word having been used towards him by a seven-year-old little girl who had at one time followed him around the kitchen in wonder as he prepared meals for the now large family.

The class soon joined the other two stood before the doorway of the Manor. The class wasn't letting loose the current lie that had been spread by the green-eyed Italian who held a smug smile to her lips. Marinette could instantly tell that Lila didn't care where they were, or who heard her lies at this point. The other teenage girl felt powerful. Too powerful at that, and that power was going to be the downfall to the kingdom that she had worked not all that hard for, and it was going to fall rather soon at that.

"Ah, if you'd please hang me your coats and wait in the front room for the Wayne family."

The class was in wonder once their eyes hand landed on the inner workings of the large home. They all gasped at the gothic-like decor that lined the hallways to the left and right, and that ran all the way upstairs, and they all missed the faraway gleam that fell upon blue-bell colored eyes as memories of laughter filled the hallways around the class. Completely blocking out the current happenings around Marinette.

"It's good to be back." She spoke quietly and to herself, it's not like anyone would believe her anyway. Her time of having friends in her class had come to a stop two years ago. Two years of the young girl having to live through the hell of trying to control her deteriorating emotional wall.

Marinette shook her head and made her way into the living room that currently holds the family of which had welcomed her class into their home. A family of whom had grown since the last time she had seen them, and a family she had cut all ties with after Jason's death.

  
The three men that she knew personality looked on at her with a gentle look.

Jason, who's nose looked like it had seen better days, held a smile to his face as he took in the sights of his sister for the second time in ten years. Both Dick and Bruce held a rather guilty look in their eyes as they looked upon the young woman before them. They could both feel the anger radiating off of the small Asian girl as she looked up upon them and they both knew what she had in store for them. It was the same fate that Jason's nose had fallen upon just two days ago.

Bruce straightened his suite nervously and stepped forward a bit.

There was a glint in the smaller blue-eyed girl's eyes that made Bruce proud but slightly fearful for his own face, something the man has never really been all that mindful of with his nighttime activities as Batman, but there's always time for firsts.

The room grew tense in anticipation as nearly everyone in the room practically leaned forward in wait, they were all waiting for the youngest Todd to make her move, and they were so focused that they failed to take notice of her class gathering around the open entryway to the large living room.

"Marinette, it's been a wh-"

-

A smack sounded through the room as a fist connected to Bruce Wayne's cheek. The punch to the older mans face resulting in blood to trickle down his chin.

Gasps broke out from behind, startling the others in the room besides a darker-skinned male with the eyes of the darkest green emerald Marinette could think of.

"Marinette! How could you go around punching our host?"

Madam Bustier's question went unanswered and others silenced as a hand had been raised by Bruce himself letting the teacher and class know there would only be silence until they were spoken to.

"Richard Grayson."

The oldest of the Wayne sons tensed up and turned to run but was stopped by the darker-skinned boy who held a smirk on his lips, he looked to be enjoying the scene that was playing out before him, and he wasn't about to let it come to a halt so soon.

"Oh, she pulled a complete full name cared." Jason called out, the 'o' in oh being drawn out in a taunting way. It seemed he himself was rather enjoying seeing people being punched in the face, especially his adoptive father.

The older son sighed and rubbed at the bridge of his now before nodding his head and turned to look at the shorter blue-eyed girl. "Alright sunshine, hit me with your best shot." And Marinette did. She actually punched Dick so hard his head flew back a bit as well as the cause for a nose bleed.

The rest of the family laughed in amusement at the sight before them, but not much could be said for the class behind them. A class full of confused students and teachers combined.

"It's good to have you back in the Manor as always, Ms. Marinette."


	4. One last punch (pt.3)

Damian tisked and walked away from the crowd of reports surrounding the entrance to the Wayne Manor. The crowd of ungodly people had been following the family ever since the French class had visited Gotham under Wayne's scholar organization and still have not come to rest, even after nearly a whole month of the said class having gone back to their native country.

He will admit that three good things had come out of the foreign student's stay in the states, and it was seeing three out five main family being punched by the petite blue-eyed girl who stood at a height of 5'5, or potentially shorter than that. He would be lying if he said the amount of strength the Asian girl held in her punch wasn't impressive because it was, but he didn't let anyone, certainly not his family.

Speaking of family, no one seemed to be in the sitting room. Normally at least half of the family could be found in the said room at three after Damian would get off of school. If they weren't found there, they were easily able to find somewhere around the house. Alfred would be in the kitchen, or making his way there, Dick could be found in the work out room, Jason would normally be in the library reading, and Tim, as well as Bruce, could normally be found in the Batcave, but the Manor was too quiet for a loud family such as the Wayne's so the youngest Wayne knew where to look.

Once the young green-eyed teenager had found his way into the cave, he was shocked to see a majority of the Justice League members stood in the middle and all looking up at the bat computer with their eyebrows furrowed in concern. Even his father wore an expression on his face under his cowl that wasn't blank, something rather troublesome had to be going on to pull such a reaction from his father.

"Father, what's going on here?"

Damian asked, letting his presence be known after he had grabbed one of his domino masks and removed his Gotham Academy blazer so that none of the league members who didn't know Batman's identity couldn't know his as well.

The adults, besides Batman and Superman, jumped in a bit of surprise at the sudden call from behind. They hadn't been expecting anyone to enter the cave, at least because they had all assumed the entirety of the bat family had already been down there, just all hidden away doing their own thing while the older hero's discussed their league business.

"There's been a problem that has come up with our Parisian league division-" Batman spoke up in a rather angry tone of voice. His jaw was clenched in frustration and his knuckles pulled into a fist as he looked away from the screen and looked upon his youngest son. "They have failed to keep us up to date of any dangers taking place in their county, and something such as that has been taking place for nearly five years."

Damian furrowed his own brow at his father's words. Never in his life did he think that any of the league members would keep events dangerous to a city to themselves, not if it was bad enough to bring together every member. Even the Green Arrow and made an appearance, and he wasn't seen all that often in official league business.

"If you don't mind me asking, how did you come across it, and what exactly is taking place in Paris." The angry voice of the Red Hood called out as he finally made himself known. He was armed with two unloaded guns in his hands and looked as if he would go on a killing rampage any minute, and honestly, Damian couldn't blame him. The older males only remaining blood relative lived in the same city that was the center of the topic among the other adults stationed in the center of the cave.

Everyone in the room could feel the rage of an older brother, and none really wanted to stand in the Red Hoods way, especially with guns, no matter the fact if they were loaded or not.

"It's going to sound like a plot of a children's cartoon but these events have been taking place. Robin, suite up, and then we will discuss the problem in Paris."

-

"How goes for contacting the Parisian branch of the Justice League?" Ladybug was startled out of her thoughts as Viperion landed beside his crime-fighting partner on the top of the Eiffel tower. The red and blacked themed superhero sighed and shook her head as she began to scan the darkening horizon before her piercing blue eyes.

"Not too hot, so I've reached out to the American Justice League, spoke to Wonder Woman, very nice and was willing to help. She just needs to inform every other league member of the miraculous history and whatnot." 

Viperion's black-green hair swayed slightly in the breeze as he took in Ladybug's words. He hadn't understood how their branch of the Justice League could turn such a blind eye to the city they had been stationed at, and for five years. They left kids to run around, in over their heads trying to save the city they loved, and it was beginning to become too much for the miraculous team, especially when one of their vital members of the group has begun to show up less and less.

"I'm just waiting for a call back at this time. I know time zones are different in states, seeing as I'm from there originally, so everyone is most likely busy in their civilian life, or still asleep."

The two soon fell into silence after that it soon interrupted.

"Well, it looks like we've got work to do."

-

"It's very easy with how this all works. The guardian goes out in search for a miraculous holder, not at all times are the holders the true wilder of the miraculous, and if not, they can be corrupted by it's magic if in use for extended amounts of time, or as often as the team and I have been using them," Ladybug paused and smiled as she nodded her head, "hence, why the former black cat became corrupted." 

The Miraculous team all nodded in agreement but remained silent as they measured up the older heroes before them. They were wary to trust the hero's, for the young teenagers, had been going years being ignored by the European branch of the Justice League, so what would be stopping the founders from turning their backs on them as well. 

The league in general, besides the Batman and Wonder Woman, hadn't so much as said a word to the young hero's, all of them listening in or reading up on all of the events that had been taking place in Paris for the past couple of years. From the debut of certain hero's to the mantle being taken from others, they all couldn't even fathom what it was like to have to go through such work at such young ages. That is unless you know the Robin's, but this situation was still not something that any of the adults in the room wanted children to have to go through.

"So, I assume a new black cat is needed then, in order for the ladybug miraculous to continue to be used safely." Ladybug nodded her head and opened up her yoyo to bring out the cat miraculous, revealing Plagg to the hero's sat at the table in the room they stood in.

"Plagg has informed me that he has felt the presence of his true wilder while in Gotham. The former holder had been on a class trip to America not too long ago." The small black kwamii nodded his head and flew on closer to the Dark Knight who stood before the table that the rest of his team was sat around.

"I sensed the energy of chaos and destruction heavily on you, but it's not your energy directly. Yes your own does hold the power of which I seek from a holder, but you are not him, but he is someone close to you, someone, who's obviously felt the power of a Lazarus Pit."

The Batman tensed up slightly and turned to look down at the table. He soon pulled up a Holo call and let it ring. "Don't ask questions, I want you and the rest of the team to get to the watchtower." The caped crusader soon hung up and turned back to look at the tiny god who floated before him.

The two stared each other down before Plagg backed down and flew back over to his Guardian, Ladybug, and stationed himself atop her head and looked out upon the adults stationed amongst the table, his eyes falling upon Wonder Woman and causing for a smile to fall upon his face as he looked at one of his counterparts previous holders children.

"A daughter of Hippolyta, if I'm not mistaken."

Before anyone could respond to the statement, the team previously called upon by the Dark Knight made themselves known in a rather rambunctious way. Three out of the four present in the bat team were arguing with themselves rather loudly as the other (obviously the oldest) pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed rather loudly before looking up and looking Batman in the eyes.

"The girls and Signal stayed behind to look over our last case. They wanted to make sure that we hadn't missed anything."

With a nod, Batman looked over towards Ladybug, only to see the black kwamii flying over towards his youngest.

The whole room stood in silence as Plagg looked his potential holder up and down before turning with a large grin spread across his tiny face, "this is him." He spoke with glee and completely ignoring the gasps of disbelief coming from practically everyone one in the Justice League, all excluding one Dark Knight, who actually looked rather close to laughing at the scrunched up face of his youngest son.

Ladybug looked from the black cat's ring and onto Robin in curiosity. She was reluctant to give up the ring in fear that the new holder would turn out to be just like, if not worse, than the previous holder before him, but she let that feeling go. She trusts Plagg, and if he was able to spot the boy without even having to do a thorough search after having had sensed him once before, then this traffic light of a vigilante must be the one for the small god.

"What is the meaning of this father?"

"We'll explain everything later, just put the ring on and listen to Ladybug."

-

Damian glared angrily down at the ground. After the events in the watchtower, and using a "magical girl transformation (he'd stab Dick for that one for sure) he was now temporarily stuck in Paris fighting with a team of hero's whom of which were anything but amateurs. The teenager had had a heated argument with his father about this after the meeting, he'd nearly even thrown a punch in, but restrained himself from doing so, he'd known that that would've definitely gotten him benched from his Robin duties after he come back from being a furry running around the rooftops of the 'City of Love'. 

"There you are," Ladybug had landed silently next to Damian, something that the slightly younger boy had been rather impressed by when it had first happened, but he wasn't about to let the red and black colored hero know such a thing, he had to much pride. "You know, Yè māo, you could act as if you actually cared about this mission."

The scoof that fell from the black cat's lips went by noticed, but the shorter girl beside him only threw him a narrowed glance before looking on ahead at the vast city spread out below them. It had been nearly a month that the miraculous team and the current Robin began working side by side, and they currently weren't doing too hot of a job doing the working together part. The new black cat tended to do things son his own, and didn't communicate properly with the team. The boy really loved holding his own detective investigation to his chest and only revealed small pieces of information that didn't even connect, kind of like he was trying to throw off the Miraculous team.

Damian just rolled his eyes at her words and tsked softly, showing that he was annoyed by the pigtail wearing hero, but the heroine wasn't having any of it, she had become rather fed up with his actions, and she was about ready to take up the cats ring once again.

"Look here buddy," she pushed the dark themes hero to the flooring of the Eiffel tower and glared down at him. Her normally Bluebell eyes turning the color of the darkest waters from the shadows surrounding them. "Either you get your head out of your ass, or I'm taking this ring and shipping your ass back to Gotham, have fun explaining that one to your father."

The two stared each other down for a few minutes before Damian sighed and shoved the blue-eyed hero to the side. He had had it with being bossed around by an amateur and thought it time to let the girl now that he wasn't going to take shit from the like of her. He would later come to realize just how badly he should've kept his words to himself, and maybe, just maybe actually followed the commands of the Paris native before him, but this is Damian Wayne, he doesn't do such things.

Pushing his shoulders back, and narrowing his eyes, Yè māo pointed a black gloves hand to the girl before him and let his thoughts known, "I will not be taking commands from the likings of you. You being someone who hasn't had the extent, or the number of years upon years of training I have. Someone who was given this choice by it being thrust upon you by the wishes of a dying old man, who in the end, made a rather large mistake with one of his choices. I will not obey the orders of a hero, whom of which has been fighting these battles for years, hasn't even been able to pinpoint where all these Akumas have been coming fr-"

Damian was cut off in his rant by a blow to his face of which had knocked him flat onto his ass, and rather dazed.

A now fuming Ladybug was standing over him, her breathing was ragged, but gradually calming down as she kept in mind how her anger would be turned against her in a time like this. "Look, I get it, I do, but this is my city. Keep that in mind." And with that Ladybug pulled her yoyo out and slung away, leaving behind a bewildered Damian rubbing his hand against his cheek.

"Yeah, that was definitely Todd's sister." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hoped you guys enjoyed part three! :) As of right now this is the last part of this small trilogy 'a well deserved punch' one-shots. I'm taking a break from it to work on a different one-shot that doesn't follow this one's plot or storyline, but I do plan on returning at some point, just not sure when, and when I have there will be a different name for the continuation.


	5. his secret (pt. 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning, it's not like a rating warning it's just that, I wrote Ladybug as having grey eyes when I know she has blue, but I did this because I think that with the magic trying to conceal Marinette's identity then it should change some obvious features of hers that stand out, like her bright blue eyes.

  
Damian had a secret.

That's no surprise seeing as we are talking about the blood son of Bruce Wayne, and the only blood son at that. The kid is bound to have secrets of his own that he holds from the media that surrounds his family on a daily basis, but no, this secret is much bigger and goes beyond the eyes of the media. Not even his family (well his father's) know of this secret.

That is how well he has hidden her from them.

-

"Dove?"

A gentle voice called out from behind, startling the young, green-eyed man slightly, but only enough for the woman stood behind him to see. He couldn't afford for anyone else to set their eyes upon him at his weakest, only her, he'd only ever allow for her to see him in such a state. 

Damian turned and smiled happily down at the short woman. The light blue eyes brightening up as her assumption of the man who stood before her had been correct and not a hallucination conjured up by her mind.

"Angel, are you not happy to see me?" His emerald green eyes danced with the light of love as he pulled the short Fench-Asian woman into his arms and kissed at the top of her blue-black hair. He soon pulled away and stepped back to get a better look at the woman he called his wife. It had been nearly a month since the two had last seen one another, and the distance effected them harder each time the two separated, and Damian planned on changing that, very soon, if he could convince his Angel to do so.

"Of course, I'm always happy to see you Damian, but when I'm at school..." Worry soon flooded the short woman's face and she nervously turned to look over her shoulder and sighed with relief when she saw that their surrounding area was deserted, her tense shoulders relaxed and she fell into the chest and clenched her fists onto the material of the shirt he was wearing. He took notice of her distress and frowned deeply as he himself began to keep a lookout for any unwanted visitors.

He knew that the school life and personal life away from him for Marinette was beginning to become too much for the petite blue-eyed woman, and it painted him ever so great to be away from her for longer than a few hours, but they had promised to themselves to hold through until her duties to Paris as Ladybug had come to an end through the defeat of Hawkmoth, but that had been made four going into five years ago, and the villain's reign of terror was still holding strong on the lives of the civilians. 

It was time for him and his family to step in.

"We need to talk." 

Marinette tensed and looked up at the green eyes of the man she called her husband. Those words could hold many meanings, but the meaning in his words, she knew, and she was not ready to have the conversation that was unfolding. She wasn't ready to ask for help from the world's greatest detective, nor was she ready to be out in the spotlight anytime soon. Marinette rather enjoyed her mostly quiet life, and she wanted to keep a bit longer.

"No, no we are not having this talk," Her blue eyes narrowed and she pushed herself away from the arms that had been holding her. She crossed her own arms and turned away. Her face giving away to pain as she looked on down at the ground beneath her feet. "I'm not ready yet, I don't- I don't want the bring them into Paris and I'm not ready to give up my miraculous..." The last part she whispered to herself, she didn't want Damian to here that, not yet at least she still had time before she had to tell him.

The two, although young, both still seventeen years old had been married since they were fifteen. Though not common, it wasn't heard of to marry off young in the League of Assassin's, but sometimes Marinette wished that Talia and her own mother had waited to marry the two off, and not at such a young age, but it is something she wouldn't change for the world now that it has happened. 

Damian sighed and nodded his head. He reached out and gently placed his hand upon the shoulder of his love and carefully turned her so that the two could continue to speak clearly. He had known that he would be a difficult task for the French-Asian girl and knew that though she may need help, she wouldn't go down without a fight, but he also knew that letting Hawkmoth's power run any longer. Then it was sure to be the end of the woman that he loved, and he couldn't allow for that to happen.

The two gazed at one another in silence for a few minutes the only thing breaking their lock upon each other being the school bell signaling the end of the short woman's lunch break.

Marinette frowned and nodded her head, she turned and stopped before looking back up at Damian. "We'll talk about this later, meet me at the Eiffel tower?" 

-

With a silent huff of breath, Ladybug landed on the highest platform of the Eiffel tower overlooking the city. No one could see her meet up with Robin here, not even Chat, though it's safe to say she probably wouldn't see him for the rest of the week, his absence has been greatly noticed by those in the public eye. 

She needed to do something about his lack of staying by her side, and soon. Ladybug feared that the citizens of Paris would turn on, not only on her, but all the other Miraculous hero's she has been calling upon more often as of late. The spandex dressed hero could feel the tension rising in the city from the lasting effects that Hawkmoth has caused during his four-year reign and such tension is a cause of half of the Akuma sightings, the other half all being from the actions of one Italian student at Collège Françouis Dupont.

"I didn't think you would show up." 

Ladybug didn't flinch, she knew who the voice belong to and she wouldn't have turned around if it wasn't for how the voice had sounded. The Robin's voice sounded small, scared, and vulnerable it's something that never happened, not even when Slade- Deathstroke had killed Ras Al Gul not even when he was forced to be uprooted from his home, from his betrothed and onwards to the states to live with his father. 

It pained the grey eyed hero for the other, more seasoned hero to doubt her, but he had his rights too. She hadn't been to open and willing to be here tonight.

"Of course I did. What kind of spouse would I be if I hadn't?" Robin didn't smiled, but his stance straightened up enough for the Parisian to know that her words had gone to his heart, they made him feel stronger.

The two stood there for a bit in silence. They both knew what needed to be said, but neither had the heart to speak up first, at least at the time they hadn't.

"Look, I know how much you're against bringing my family into the mix, and well, really I can't blame you bug. This is your city, and this is your teams fight. But you need the help, next month is going on five years of going head to head with Akumas and still no idea as to who Hawkmoth or Mayura are. My family can help with that part. I'm not exactly saying let them join in on the fighting. That will be all up to you, but you need help on the investigation end of the job." 

He had valid points, points that Marinette, not Ladybug, couldn't ignore, and she knew that deep down this couldn't be a discussion that Ladybug made completely on her own. She needed her civilian heart in on this too but that didn't mean that bringing in strangers to her team - ones she didn't even know if they could conceal their emotions - and launch an investigation, and would probably be expecting to join in on the fighting as well.

With a sigh and a slight nod of her head, Marinette looked up at the taller hero before her and pressed her lips together. She knew that with welcoming in the rest of the bat team meant revealing Damian's and hers marriage. What with being so used to keeping this such a secret from everyone but her own parents, Marinette had grown to fearing making such news public. 

Going public meant being followed around with a camera shoved in her face for being a member of the Wayne family. It meant that she would no longer have the privacy of her simple (who is she kidding, her life is anything but simple, but she could dream) life here in Paris. It meant their was a possibility of gaining stalkers and keeping a close eye over her shoulder, closer than the one she already has for the students in her classroom.

"I was prepared to put up a fight over this whole thing, but standing here and hearing your words have helped me to realize just how tired I am. Tired of all of this: of having to be one of the only constants in this fight to rid Hawkmoth and Mayura of their powers, of having to constantly battle with the tourment my classmates have put me through, and finally of keeping our relationship a secret." 

The extent of her exhaustion had come as a rather big surprise. Marinette had all but assumed the heaviness of her shoulders and the tightness to her chest had all been from the weight of keeping afloat in a class. In a school that no longer wanted her, she hadn't expected for her secret relationship with the only blood heir to the Wayne family was a larger part of that puzzle piece.

"We'll move into this on your terms, so Robin, I guess just let me.... Just give me sometime to prepare for everything."

The two said nothing else before going their separate ways.

-

"There's nothing wrong with wanting to hold onto a secret." The shrill voice of Chloe called out as she made herself comfortable on the couch in her hotel bedroom. Though the two seemed like an unlikely pair of friends, you couldn't see them apart of one another. The two could practically be stuck at the hip if it weren't for the fact that they did infact live separate lives.

Marinette sighed and rubbed at her forehead tiredly. She had gone yet another night without sleep this week, but this time it wasn't because of a design or homework. It had been alone because of the talk she had had with Damian the night before. Thought she had given her consent to her husband revealing their life together and their past, it still settled oddly in her chest, and she couldn't help but feel as if she was lacking in oxygen.

"No, I know, it's just- it's just it's a rather big secret, and it will bring a lot of attention." The blonde rolled her eyes at her distraught friend and laid down beside the bluenette so she too could turn her eyes to the ceiling above. 

"Whatever it is it can't be that bad." 

"If only you knew.."

-

The month following their discussion had been a long and drawn out period of time. For the both it had felt as if they'd been walking upon the shells of eggs, and on wrong step would cause for everything to fall to ruin for their future.

Today, for Marinette had felt as if the day would finally go right and play into her favors. She hadn't (miraculously) woken up late today and she hadn't needed to rush on off to school while struggling to pull her longer hair into her now signature braid, having had gotten rid of her trademark pigtails after her sixteenth birthday.

Nino had greeted her happily with a friendly kiss to the cheek as she had taken her seat next to his. Everyone had been surprised to see the blue-eyed girl walk in twenty minutes before the bell would ring, but they chalked off their shock and replaced the look with ugly looks. This didn't faze her, not by any means at all, but that didn't mean it went unnoticed.

Before long the class had settled down and had moved on to talking quietly amongst themselves as they waited for their day to begin.

Nino had been speaking animatedly about his gig with Luka coming up, and being the good friend that Marinette was, she was about to offer commissioning custom clothing for the night, but before she could voice her wish to her friend Mm. Bustier had graced her class with her presence, and not far behind her, someone all too familiar to Marinette walked in with his back completely straight and the coldest glare set upon his enchanting emerald green eyes, Damian caused for casts of aw to fall from everyone's lips.

All except Marinette's.

The class was excited, finally a new student in their ranks, and hopefully someone they could pull into their grasps and turn against the blue-eyed girl sat in the back of the room, completely cut out from everyone besides Nino.

As much excitement continued to be carried out amungst the class, Damian let his eyes drift along the heads of his new peers. He was calculating silently and filing away every small twitch or habit that stood out to his minds eyes, his eyes growing colder and colder until they landed upon the very Bluebell color that caused for his heart to flutter.

He smirked mischievously. 


	6. His secret (pt. 2)

Damian stared wide-eyed at his family. They all stood in the Batcave with their arms crossed over their chests (all except for Alfred, who had a knowing look upon his aged face) and stern looks pointed towards the youngest Wayne.

Damian had just made it back from Zeta tubing back from Paris. He was hoping he would make it back either before patrolling or after everyone (all except for Alfred) had made it into bed, but it seems he miscalculated, or has been doing a poor job at covering his tracks.

"I can only assume all of you have questions, and I am willing to answer, and that's only if they aren't entirely ridiculous and illogical. Yes, I'm speaking directly towards you, Grayson."

Nightwing gasped in mock hurt. He dropped the stern look that had masked his slightly scarred face and placed his hand upon his chest to show he had taken his younger brother's words to heart.

This action caused everyone in the cave to roll their eyes.

"No civilian names in the cave, but putting aside Nightwing's dramatics," Batman removed the cowl from his face and pointed over towards the Bat-computer that showed six heat signatures standing directly on the location of the cave, Damian cursed at the realization that he must have missed a tracking chip that his father had planted somewhere, "I've been noticing as of lately that you run off at least once a month, and sometimes twice, off to Paris. Care to explain why?"

Damian swallowed nervously and turned to glare back at the computer screen.

"It would seem I have missed one of your tracking chips, father, and where, may I ask, is this one?"

Batman narrowed his blue eyes and stepped forward a bit. The man had chipped everyone in the family after the incident involving Jason's death and revival. Call him a paranoid man, but that's how he showed he cared and worried for the lives of his family.

"Why Robin, have you been sneaking off to Paris, and constantly at that? You've never shown interest in anyplace since moving into the manor. At least not to my knowledge, so why now?"

The air in the room grew tense. Damian knew that now was as best of time to spill everything out and into the open about his marriage. About the young woman back in Paris with the bluest eyes he'd ever seen. About the only one who had ever made him feel human during his time with the League of Assassin's, and wanted to, now that there was consent from that love, but something stopped him. Something was freezing up inside of him and clutching onto the one, and the only secret he was only ever able to hide from his family.

It safe to say that Damian had never felt this way before. He felt strange, his head was growing dizzy, and he was struggling to breathe. His eyes, something was happening with his eyes.

A worried gasp sounded out from somewhere, but Damian couldn't locate the sound, couldn't zone in on the person it had come from, though a part of him knew it was most likely Grayson. Tears began to fall from his usually confident green eyes as he collapsed to go his knees as he heaved for breath.

Damian was so out of character, and he knew it, but he couldn't stop it. He's not sure what brought on this rush of panic, of anxiety, but he didn't like it, not one bit. It left him feeling unlike himself, out of power, and out of confidence.

"Can't... I can't."

He finally managed out before promptly passing out.

-

Damian slowly woke to the sound of soft purring and a mattress under his back. When he opened his eyes, he was welcomed to the sight of Alfred, the cat, curled up on his chest, and the rest of the family sitting around his room looked instead, worried. He didn't think he could ever pull a worried expression onto even Jason's face, and there he was, leaned against his bedrooms door frame, looked as if someone had kicked his puppy.

"Don't tell me, either Ace or Titus died, and now I have to kill someone because that could be the only possible reason for Todd to be looking like that in my doorway." 

Damian sat up, after having carefully moving Alfred from his chest, and glared over at his father, who would've been the only one to let every living member of the house into his room, Damian was not amused, he could only tolerate Duke into his private room, and that was only sometimes.

"Oh, fuck off."

Bruce sighed and pinched at the bridge of his nose as he shook his head, he was probably starting to realize that he shouldn't have let all, or any of his children sit in wait for the youngest to awaken from his panic-induced sleep, but he couldn't help it. He was in the form of panic. Never in his wildest dreams did he think he would see his son, the strongest of all his sons reduced to tears of panic, not even Scarecrows fear toxin pulled such a reaction from the current Robin. If anything, it caused him to become rather violent.

"Look, we are all worried over what happened back in the Batcave was, well..." Bruce trailed off and looked into the green eyes of the younger male who looked too much like himself and shook his head as he let out a shaky breath and ran his fingers through his dark hair. "Well, let's just say it's got the whole house on edge and worried about your health."

Damian's lips turned into a thin line as he looked down at the blankets that covered his lap. He didn't have an excuse has to his reaction from being questioned about his visits to Paris. He didn't have an answer as to why revealing the secret life he's been living affected him in such a negative way. He just knew he needed to be closer to his angel now more than ever.

"I'm married."

Gasps filled the room, and Jason tripped onto the floor in surprise, and it so did not put a smile onto Damian's lips.

"I'm sorry, you're what?"

"Married and my wife needs our help."

-

To say that the following month for Damian was a rush would be an understatement after spilling his guts out about his secret marriage, and how that came to be under Bruce's watch. All thought worried, Bruce did come around and accept this fact. 

The father and son duo had sat down and discussed the topic at hand for around an hour. An hour of which was full of Damian gushing over his wife as his father's eyebrow raised with a faint smile upon his lips. Seeing his youngest happy over someone made him feel satisfied because he never thought he'd love to see a day where is only blood son would marry, and his final words on the matter were, "just don't make me a grandfather, just yet." 

Aside from that, the rush came from concerning his leave from Gotham Academy, Jon had thrown a bit of a fit when he heard that one, and placed into Françoise Dupont became to priority involving lots of paperwork, but in the end, the results had come through. Damian saw himself flying onwards towards Paris with his father, and reluctantly all (excluding Duke) his brothers.

All of this, in the end, led him to today. He is standing before a new environment of young adults who didn't have the pleasure of being noted as such from their actions. The way they have been treating Marinette alone is downright childish that it sickens Damian to even be in their presence, but alas, he is not here for them. No, he is here for the young woman who sat in the very back next to a darker-skinned boy with his cap on backward.

"Class, please welcome Damian Wayne."

-

"You bastard!"

The Wayne family went wide-eyed at the short, blue-haired woman that stormed into the apartment living room they had been huddled up in since Damian had left. They hadn't expected anyone to walk in for another seven hours, what with school and all, so a surprise visit from the young husband and wife now stood before then threw them off completely. 

"So you stated before Angel, and yes I probably should have told you I was transferring into your class, but if I had you would have tried -and I do say tried because it wouldn't have worked- to stop me from doing so, but you must remember that we agreed on letting my family into the fold of our life here in Paris, and of the help that you're needing for the past two years." 

The two stared each other down, not speaking a word. The family, who sat in question going unnoticed by the arguing couple, sat back in silence and watched as the tense rise and then completely bleed out from the shoulders of the short woman. She had let out a tired sigh and rubbed at her forehead equally as tired as her whisper had sounded. 

"Look, why don't you take a seat and get yourself familiar with my family -and yes, that is them huddled over there- while I make you some tea." 

Silence fell back into the living room once Damian walked out. The Wayne's and Marinette looking each other up and down as if sizing up and calculating how dangerous each other were, and both for obviously different reasons that held truth in their similar backgrounds of fighting for justice.

When Marinette's eyes landed on Jason, her eyebrows raised in alarm, she could feel death clinging onto him and a darkened energy that his lightened core seemed to be fighting with, and slowly but surely winning the said fight. Still, it wouldn't be evident to himself or the people around him. She would need to consult Tiki about the manifestation within the older man's being.

Thought the man with the singular white streak in his hair seemed a good enough guy, all the death and anger in his inner core made the Parisian shiver. 

"I can only assume that Damian as explained everything, or rather, almost everything to you?" 

Marinette straightened up slightly but fell back to the cushioning of the couch as a slight grimace made itself present onto her delicate like features. The look didn't go unnoticed by the small crowed on her living room couch, but they weren't brave enough to ask her what was wrong.

"Yes, you have guessed correctly, and we," Dick, the only one who had mustered up the courage to speak to the tiny French-Asian woman sat before him gestured to the area around the couch, "have come to offer as much help as we can give in this situation, and, no matter how much we hate it, we will play by your rules."

Marinette smiled, she had a feeling she would grow very close with the man with the kind eyes, but neither the less, she knew she would grow to love this family that cared and stood by her stubborn husband's side, and she has thanked them much for putting up with his bratty pre-teen years.

"Thank you, I will mainly ask for your help in locating Hawkmoth and Mayura's locations, and if needed, given a miraculous. I have a hunch as to who the two villains are, but I don't have enough concrete evidence to go forth with it." 

Damian walked in soon after, handed the tea over to the blue-eyed beauty, and kissed the top of her head before taking his seat beside her. Taking a deep breath and pressing his fingertips together, he glanced up at his shocked family. "Her partner, Chat Noir, hasn't been much help as of late so that I will be taking over as the black cat until further notice. That means I will have to step down from my role as Robin in Gotham to be here at all hours, by her side." 

To say that Bruce and his brothers were shocked was an understatement. They knew Damian from when he viewed himself as the one true Robin, from when he stated he had been the only one genuinely right for the mantle of Batman's sidekick, and hearing him resign himself from the role, even if it's for a short time was rather significant. Noticeable growth in his development has an adult.

"Well then, let's get this son of a bitch."

-

Before long, a month had passed. A month of pulling over clues and notes that directed them to the route of Hawkmoth and his layer, and of taking back the black cat miraculously, the team of supers were finally ready to move forward with their plan. 

The team of vigilantes had kept to their promise. They only made themselves useful in the detective work, only going out to help fight crime when Marinette, who they later learned was Ladybug, had bestowed upon them a miraculous, and that on its own wasn't as rare as either party had expected it to be, they saw themselves out on the field quite often, though never together as a group.

The day of the final battle was growing nearer and nearer, and the evidence that they had piled up over the Agreste family was outstanding on its own. It had caused for Nino, who even though hadn't spoken to Adrien since he had turned his back on Marinette, so as still left breathless and heartbroken. There was no denying the fact that Nino hadn't been in love with the blond, green-eyed boy at some point.

"Are you going to be able to do this?" Ladybug had asked Nino as she had held out Wayzz's miraculous to the dark-skinned teen.

He had taken in a shaky breath and nodded his head. However, his romantic feelings for Adrien had died off at some point during this five year run of Hawkmoths reign of terror. It still hurt to learn that the once caring green-eyed would've partnered up with the man, even with Hawkmoth being his father, he would've thought Adrien would've fought to break away from the man's hold on his life.

"Of course." Nino wasn't about to let his past crush cloud his judgment. He wanted to see justice be brought to the citizens of Pairs; the time of terror needed to be brought to an end.

-

The fight had been long and hard. At the end of the day, after Gabriel Agreste and Nathalie Sancoeur had been arrested, and Adrien sent off for therapy off in England with his Aunt, was when Marinette finally let herself go. She cried for a solid two hours as Damian, their family and friends combined sat with her basking in the moment of normalcy without the fear of being preyed upon by a power-hungry psychopath.

No, all of Paris wouldn't be perfect; they would still live in fear of being torn apart and losing control of their actions through that of a simple butterfly.

"Thank you, and I probably won't be able to thank you or your family enough for the help that has provided my team and I with, and to think that I was too stubborn before to ask for it sooner."

Damian had laughed at the words of his beloved, never would her teller that he was right, he valued his life more than pointing out the obvious, but he was glad that he worked up the courage to simply hold that conversation with the woman of who would be able to kill him with her own bare hands.

The two then sat in silence for a while, simply enjoying the time that the two had together. It had been well over an hour since everyone had left the young couple to themselves; they had all had sensed that the two would need their own time to talk everything over from the fight to how they would go about living the rest of their life.

"So, what do we do from here?"

"We live."


	7. tomatoes and cherries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soulmate au

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damian maybe a little OCC in this one-shot so I apologise

Having a Soulmate was a blessing, a blessing that could be achieved by a near-death experience for everyone at that.

For some, they liked to ignore this fact. They always played it off as people creating fairy tales to tell to their children, that the universe couldn't possibly have picked out someone who was made just for themselves. To find your soulmate, or determine you had one at that, would be to eat fruits.

When it came to eating fruit, everyone had to be careful. By eating a fruit, and it turns out to be your soulmates favorite, well, let's just say, the consequences could be dire at the end of the experience.

Marinette was five when she had her first bad fruit experience, and it was with a tomato of all other fruits, that was a kicker right there, threw her parents for a loop when they discovered her soulmates favorite fruit was a tomato, they hadn't even known it was classified as such.

But there little Marinette was, on a school picnic trip at that.

It was time for lunch. Everyone was seated on the blanket laid out under a tree in the park. A basket full of the children's lunches sat beside the teacher's lap as she carefully distributed the sacks out to her young class, now the young teacher had taken account to every student's food allergy and food preferences the two weeks leading up to this day, but that doesn't mean she could be sure, half, if not most of the students in her class hadn't yet had an allergic reaction to any of the fruits they had eaten.

Marinette, being young and drawn to specific bright colors, colors such as pink, or colors close to which reminded her of such grabbed her attention, such as the slice of tomato that her best friend Nino was making a rather disgusted face towards, so she smiled and patted her friend on the shoulder enthusiastically.

"Nino, do you want that?" She had whispered as not to grab the attention of her teacher, she knew the older woman had firmly stated not to swap foods with anyone, no matter how much the others seemed to hate what they had, but she didn't think it would hurt all that much.

"Are you sure?" He had answered back wearily as he glanced up and over towards their teacher, who's back was turned to them as she spoke to their other friend Kim, who seemed himself to be complaining about something in his lunch sack.

"Mhm, I can see you don't like it, I won't tell Ms. Ansel if you won't."

The two friends stared each other down before Nino caved in, and he slid the red colored food onwards to his friend's sandwich. "Mom thinks by putting it onto my 'wich that I won't notice and will eat it, but I check every time."

Marinette giggled softly at her friend's words and quickly took a bite of her food.

Nothing happened at first, her throat became slightly scratchy, but she just thought she was maybe thirsty, but then she began to struggle with breathing, and that scared the six-year-old greatly.

"Nino," she rasped out quietly as she pulled on the sleeve of his shirt, "I can't breath."

The brown-eyed boys eyed widened, and he quickly called upon Ms. Ansel for help because Marinette's face had swelled entirely up.

"What did she eat, Nino, please tell me!"

The young teacher panicked as she flagged down another teacher who was now busy dialing for medical assistance.

"Just a tomato."

_

Damian's experience didn't come until later in his life, after he had moved into the manor with his father and become an official Wayne did he discover his fruit allergy.

It was a cold night on Valentine's day. A Wayne Gala was being held in the manor's ballroom when this event took place, Damian was stood to one of the walls with Duke by his side, neither feeling all that up to being surrounded by couples and seen near the bright pinks and reds that decorated this 'love' event. Both had their separate reasons, and both were fine with being in one another's company.

"You want a refill on that?" Duke had asked softly as he pointed down towards Damian's know empty glass of whatever it was he had been drinking. The younger male had only known that it wasn't alcoholic. 

"Sure, I could use another drink." 

Duke had nodded at that and excused himself from his adopted brother, but he wasn't gone for long, he soon returned with two clear glasses that held a light pink drink and a singular cherry floating within the liquid. 

"Sorry, I could flag down anyone serving whatever it was you had before, so I just grabbed these." The darker boys smiled sheepishly and held out the glass the younger before taking his spot back against the wall. "I don't know what the cherry is for, but I'll eat it if you'd like." 

Damian hadn't said anything, and he gazed down at the red fruit seamlessly chilling in his glass. He wasn't opposed to trying it, seeing as it did look rather pleasing to the eyes. "It is fine." After that, the two remained standing in silence at the wall, Duke occasionally taking a sip from his glass as they both watched the gathering before them. 

Once again, Damian found himself drawn to the small red fruit, he couldn't place why, but something in his head was tempting him to eat the drink decor while something else, something nearly hidden, was warning him against it. The warning wasn't all that loud, and if it had, maybe he would've refrained from eating the damn thing in the first place, but his curiosity over the small fruit won in the end, and not long after his throat began to close upon him.

"Duke?" With a wheeze, Damian fell into his brother's arms, earning a yelp from the boy and grabbing the attention of nearly everyone in the room.

"Bruce's, get a medic in here now! Damian's found his soulmates fruit!" 

-

Both of these events in their lives had left them now. Damian, going by Robin at the moment as he is stationed in Paris for a Teen Titan's mission, can't seem to keep his eyes off of the red-spotted hero bouncing from rooftop to rooftop with a shelled hero following closely behind. He hadn't expected for Pairs to have their own set of hero's, he had thought that the call for help to the Titan's was the Mayor's call, but it seems that it had been the woman who now stood directly before him, her grey eyes failing to stray from him.

"The names Ladybug, and this is my partner Carapace, and we are the ones who called for your help." 

The grey-eyed hero, better known as Ladybug, then went onto her explanation, her rant on how the great villain Hawkmoth had been defeated. Still, with that, his son, who had been her former partner, had run off with all three missing miraculous. 

"I normally wouldn't call in outside help such as yours, but I need your expertise in tracking down Adrien Agreste. If anything because the Ladybug can't be active much longer without the Black Cat to balance the power out." 

Of course, Nightwing and Starfire agreed to help, something that Damian was still pissy about, if anything, mainly because his attraction to this girl, with Grey eyes and blue hair, kept distracting him from what was at hand.

He needed to talk to her about this, or Jon, but it looked as his Super Boy was busy himself with awkwardly flirting with the turtle themed hero Carapace. 

It looks like he'd have to figure this all out on his own.

-

Marinette laid in her room, her eyes gazing up at her plain white walls has she thought over the events of today. 

Today she, and Carapace had met up with the American team of young hero's the Teen Titans, but the whole time she could hardly keep focus. The entire time she could feel the eyes of the current Robin on her, as she was struggling to keep her own off the boy whose eyes were completely blocked from the whites of his domino mask.

The domino mask and the hood that covered his head had given him an air of mystery, and the two swords strapped to his back, added the air of danger, something that Marinette could sense radiating off of him before even spotting the two weapons. The air around the male had left her feeling oddly safe, as if, for unknown reasons, the stranger, known as Robin, would keep her out of harm's way, and that raised alarms inside of her. 

"He's your soulmate, you know." 

Marinette jumped from the voice of her friend; she had been in such deep thought that everything had gone entirely numb around her, all sounds and even her ceiling had no longer looked like her ceiling at one point, it had just been a blurry image with dancing shapes, somewhere between the field of thoughtfulness and daydreams. 

"Come again?" Tikki sighed and chuckled softly, the small goddess floated over to Marinette's knee and took a seat. The tiny creature knew that the topic of soulmates was a sensitive one, what with the discovery of her soulmate fruit. Then Adrien chasing and insisting that the two were chosen for one another (though it was apparent he didn't like tomatoes and wasn't allergic to cherries.) 

The thought of searching for her soulmate had been something she'd been holding back on.

"That's why you were so drawn to him. You could feel your connection, the both of you. Normally when soulmates first meet the bond isn't so strong, it builds over time, strengthening as the two destined paired grow and learn together, but seeing as your a miraculous holder and he, himself has been around a power equivalent to the Black Cats, it draws your bond, your connection closer." 

The two sat in silence for some time. Marinette had never known how a soulmates bond had worked, nor how it would form, she never did her research due to the trauma from her soulmate experience at the age of six. Being at a picnic meant that people surrounded her. The children who had witnessed such event had either become somewhat overprotective of her, which were only two, her friends Nino and Kim, or taken to teasing with her, for no one outright liked tomato's, sure they could tolerate them, but enjoying eating them on their own was so bizarre to her class.

Though she wasn't a fan of discovering that her destined was in such proximity with her, she only hoped he wouldn't distract her from her work, or worse, recognize her even through the heavy magic that concealed her identity from the whole of Paris.

-

This wasn't his idea, he hadn't wanted to go out in person, in civilian clothes with the rest of the Titan's, he's also pretty sure Raven hadn't either, but he couldn't much tell has she was too busy speaking with his older brother at the moment, something about their railer years before Dick had become Nightwing, he wasn't paying all that much attention though, Damian was mainly focused on the bakery that the team was making their way towards.

The green-eyed boy wasn't much big on sweets, never had been seeing as how he was raised, but the aroma coming from the cozy little shop had caused him to stop. Something in him was telling him he needed to break away from the group, and he couldn't tell if he should listen to said instinct or not.

After what had happened earlier this morning, Damian had been slightly on edge, for the young woman had made him feel at peace inside, something that no one could ever accomplish.

And he wasn't that big of a fan of this.

Deciding once again to follow quench curiosity, Damian silently snuck away from the group of young superheroes and into Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie were he was met with the pleasant smell of pastries and other baked goods. What grabbed his attention once he had made it up to the viewing glass was that there were no cherries anywhere, none of the cakes or cupcakes, and no baked goods with cherry ingredients. Now he wasn't going to jump to conclusions about his soulmate, there are many people out in work with a soulmates fruit as cherries, but still, his brain couldn't help going there.

"Sir, would you like anything?"

Damian shook his head and looked over towards the counter, standing directly being the display of cakes and what not was a smaller woman with blue hair ties up in a messy bun. The smile on her face seemed to falter a bit as she took in the sight of Damian, but other than that, the cheerful look on his face never let up, it both annoyed him and pleased him at the same time.

Something that came as a sock towards Damian.

"Ah, no, I'm just looking." Something about the smaller woman stood behind the counter struck Damian as familiar, in his mind, he was running past scenarios where he could have possibly met her. Then it clicked, the blue eyes, when masked behind a red and block dotted domino mask, all though grey at the time and her blue hair are the two key features that strike him as familiar.

She was Ladybug, and he was seemingly the only person who recognized this.

"You're La-"

The blue-eyed girl's eyes widened, and she joe's over the display case to Damian, covering his mouth with her hands as she looked at him with panic in her eyes.

"No one can know, how you know this, I can only assume who you are, what from your build, and I how you carry yourself, but this must remain a secret between the two of us, do you understand?"

The fear in her voice struck Damian first, his soulmate, he is assuming she is such from what she has just revealed, is still recovering from all the terrorism carried out through the past four three years of her life, he couldn't blame her for wanting to keep this such a big secret.

So with no reluctance on his end, Damian nodded his head and carefully removed the hand that had been covering his mouth. "Could I at least have your name?" He asked gently, his green-eyed, usually a hard and dark emerald green were now a gentler color.

"Marinette, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, and you are?"

"Damian Wayne."


	8. let down your walls

Marinette giggled as she stuck her tongue out in concentration, today had been a rather eventful day for the young girl, and right now was her time to relax in the shade of the park with her sketchbook in her lap. 

The young bluenette had been out and about with her grandmother, walking around and shopping in a cozy city in China, the name, the young girl could not remember for the life of her, but the atmosphere and the people around her struck her as friendly, and that's all that mattered to her young mind. Marinette had befriended a few of the children out on the streets, playing with them whenever she was free. However, her mandarin was nowhere close to perfection. The young children didn't need their native tongues to communicate, their games, and childlike wonderment leading them to understand one another to a higher level than that of what language could.

So, with a happy squeal, Marinette set her pen aside and looked happily down at the sketch in her lap, her art skills had been building over the years, and the clothing that she drew looked nearly, if not completely, life-like. She couldn't wait to share her new design with her grandmother, but before the young girl could even think about stepping out from the shade of the tree, she sat under, was when a body fell from the branches before her, and barely missed landing on her outstretched legs. 

A small yelp left the lips of both persons now under the tree. 

Marinette, being the curious little girl that she was, inched slowly over towards the caped body laid unmoving in the shade before her. She stopped a few feet before her when she took notice of the two swords strapped to himself but didn't hesitate for long before gently rolling the boy, who looked to be her age, onto his back. 

A frown slowly formed on the bluenette's lips, her observations over injuries on the boy laid out before she was called to a halt as her eyes laid upon the domino mask resting against his face, his identity was being kept a secret, and she didn't wish to take such mystery from the young boy. Before she could conclude whether or not taking the risk of removing the item should be chosen to examine any damages brought on around his eyes, was when the boy in a cape sat up and gasped lowly in pain.

"Had no right of throwing…" 

Going completely unnoticed, the bluenette sat back and frowned as she watched the darker boy talk to himself, he seemed to be so wrapped up in his fury that he had completely forgotten to take stock of his surroundings, something that Marinette was guessing never happened, but there was always room for firsts.

"He will meet my blade." 

Marinette broke out of whatever daze she had been in at the boy's words and let out a gasp as she took in the red that was slowly trailing down his neck. 

The stranger turned and quickly got to his feet once he took in the sight of a pale young girl sitting beside him, he was disgusted in himself for letting her presence go unknown to him, and for so long, he usually would have taken notice of the blue-eyed girl the moment he had awakened. 

In a flash, one of the swords strapped to the strangers back had been unsheathed and was now being pointed directly at Marinette, her blue eyes widened, but she did not scream, she oddly enough felt safe around him.

The two stared one another down, both daring the other to make the first move, even to speak the first words, but both were equally stubborn and weren't willing to back down first. 

After a few minutes of silent glaring, the sword found its way back onto the straps of the caped boy, who, in turn, went to take a seat, but nearly fell face-first into the lap of the very girl he had been trying to scare off. His fall made for a soft giggle to leave Marinette's lips.

"You know, you're kind of… weird." 

A scoof fell from his lips before he grunted and turned himself over onto his back. The young boy didn't know what to do, his father had probably needed his help with his asshole of a brother, but it would be too late for any of them to turn back, as the threat in Japan had been too high for turnarounds, it looked as if he would have to huddle here in the unknown city he had landed in China until the mission ended.

"Come with me. My grandma can help with what injuries I cannot." 

Marinette stood and offered her hand to the stranger.

He didn't know whether he should grunt and push her hand away at how willing she was to help a masked stranger or thank her silently at how prepared she was to help make sure he didn't die. 

He was going to go with the first one, but the haziness in his eyes and the lightheadedness was starting to spark a bit of worry in the closed-off boy. He was still not willing to give away his identity, and the masked one at that.

"I will go, but I have one rule, no questions about who I am, if you don't know, then I won't tell you." And with that, he took the outstretched hand in his own and slowly made his way up. The smaller girl, of which he still has yet to place a name too, was stronger than she looked; she held him up as he began to sway from the head injury caused by his fall.

-

To say Gina was surprised when her granddaughter brought a Gotham vigilante into the house was an understatement. She was frazzled, bewildered at that, she knew the young girl tended towards bringing in strays, or neighborhood children for lunch, or to help out at the very least, it was a flaw, a good one at times, but would sooner or later bite her in the ass once she welcomed in the wrong people, and that was something the older Italian woman was trying to teach the young girl, but this one, this one she was willing to help.

"What has that Wayne gone and gotten you into now." 

The Italian woman grumbled as she cleaned up the head wound on the back of the boy's head, and hit him harshly on his side, to let him know that she was not amused to see him left alone and abandoned in China.

"Gina, what are you-"

"Oh hush it, Damian, I want to know what you're doing here, out of your jurisdiction, and with a head injury, nonetheless." 

Damian groaned and sat up as he removed his mask, he hadn't expected to run into a familiar face, especially while on a mission, but he wasn't all that surprised that it ended up being Gina Dupain. The woman tended to go off and to travel the world, but this is a first for him learning that she was a grandmother and a very loving one at that. 

"Father is too busy in Japan with a mission to have the fools that are my brothers to turn around and pick me up, and one of them being the reason I am in a said predicament." 

Damian shook his head and rubbed at the bridge of his nose as he leaned back against the headboard of the bed he had been placed in. He was well aware that he had caused the reason as to why Todd had pushed him off of the jet, but he was too proud of a person to admit that.

Gina sighed and placed her hand on one of Damian's shoulders. She couldn't lie to herself, she had a soft spot for all of the Wayne boys, blood-related to Bruce or not, but Damian and Jason held a place closer to her heart, one that was similar to the love that she held for her granddaughter. The Italian was always willing and open to taking in the boys whenever needed, had been the moment the oldest one, Dick, had found his way into her self defense class after a rough night with Bruce.

"Look, why don't you stay here, keep up to date with the mission your family is on, and when it's complete, I'll take you to Gotham myself, and I'll personally have a talk with Jason myself, for he shall come to fear one Gina Dupain." 

Damian hesitantly nodded his head, he wasn't opposed to staying with the older woman, but he didn't know how he would come to handle her bright and painfully cheerful granddaughter. 

The young boy had a rough month ahead of him.

-

"What are you doing?" 

Damian startled slightly, and he hadn't expected to have company in the small room that Gina had assigned to him the day he had been taken, he had made it clear to both Gina and Marinette that he was to be left alone, the Italian woman had given an ear full of her thoughts on his words to her and learned what it was to truly fear the wrath of anyone one connected to the Dupain bloodline. 

Damian had expected for the young french-asian girl to follow his wishes; if anything, she seemed like someone who respected one's rules, but it seemed to him curiosity had gotten the better of the blue-eyed girl.

"What I may do in my spare time, I can assure you, has no right to be part of your business." 

At that, Marinette rolled her eyes and grabbed the darker boys' shirt in her fists and pulled him closer to her. Though she may be small, she had been trained in several self-defense techniques since she was young, and the likes of one ill-mannered boy were not about to leave her feeling small and scared in her own home. 

"Listen here you punk, grandma may love you, and for that reason, I am not entirely sure for, but you will not be belittling me just because you find me annoying, I just want you to know I can do the same to you, I'm just too nice to start with that." 

Damian, though impressed by the smaller girl's strength and boldness about his treatment towards her, was slightly intimidated. Being on the smaller scale himself, Damian shouldn't have been surprised that such a little body could pack such braveness and courage, especially towards him, most children his age, of which he went to school with cleared the hallways for him, well nearly everyone all except for the Kent kid.

"You have gained my respect; I don't see why we can't be civil towards one another." 

At those words, Marinette smiled and dropped the now wrinkled shirt from her hands and very boldly ruffled the black spiky style of Damian's hair, which earned a grunt from the green-eyed boy.

"More than civil my but, you'll be my best friend by the end of this month, but I asked what you were doing because I had a favor to ask of you… you see, I've been practicing with making clothing and taking measurements, Maman and papa being my practice dummies of sorts, and we'll, I'm slowly gaining confidence in my skills. 

"What I wanted to know is if you'd let me take your measurements. For the last couple of days, I've kind of been sketching together an outfit that I think would fit you nicely, and you don't have to agree to anything, I just thought I'd do something nice, in a sort of way in forming a friendship."

Marinette seemed to hold herself from saying much more, very much aware of how badly she could get when it came to her rambling, and Damian caught onto this.

Usually, such rants would be a deal-breaker for the youngest Wayne, but seeing as the shorter girl had stood up to him just now, made him look past the slight issue at hand that very much reminded him of every speedster he knew, and that being three.

"I don't have a problem with this. Any form of art must be cherished and praised to be built upon. I will help you with this favor." 

Blue-eyes brightened, and Damian's heart skipped a beat at sight.

-

A month passed, and the two children became quick friends, much to Damian's and Gina's shock. 

The two, after Marinette's act of braveness, had been nearly inseparable. One could typically be found with the other, or it not, following closely behind. If any of the children had dared to even look at Gina's young granddaughter wrong, then the heir to the demon wouldn't be far back with a glare of knives directed in their direction.

The neighborhood had quickly learned that the strange young boy and the kind blue-eyed little girl were not to be dealt with.

All too quickly came the day that Damian, Robin, was to return to his father's side in Gotham. There was a reluctance on both ends of departing. The bond that these two children now shared was beyond any that the older Italian woman had ever seen, and separating two of her favorite children was nearly heartbreaking to witness. 

Though the younger Wayne did not cry, his eyes held a certain sadness in their green depths, and her granddaughter, the poor emotion ridden child, was full out sobbing as she clutched onto the cape that was hooked to the jack of her friend's suite. Not many words were spoken between the two as Damian stood before the zeta-tube, his domino mask nearly forgotten in the grip of his hand as he held his shaking friend to his chest. 

"This isn't the last that we'll see of one another, do you understand me."

The hug between the two, if possible, tightened and brought them closer together. It may have just been a single month of the two even knowing one another, but they felt as if it had been a lifetime, and as if it would be a lifetime of either of them being away from one another.

The promise was a big one. 

Both knew they led separate lives, Damian living two, whole Marinette, Marinette was just a baker's child. She would never, hopefully, understand what it's like to live in fear for her life every day, will never have to know what it's like to fight for her own life, and will never have to spill someone else's blood to please others. In this short amount of time of knowing the french-asian girl held tightly in his arms, Damian Wayne has promised himself that he would do everything in his powers to keep the one girl he could come to love out of harm's way.

Even if that meant not being able to see her cheerful smile, and her baby doll, blue eyes lit up whenever they fell upon him, it was indeed a risk he was willing to take. 

"Pinky promise?" 

"Pinky promise." 

Though Damian knew the act was childish, he couldn't help but indulge his friend. He carefully wrapped his own around her slimmer appendage and grasped it lightly. 

Their promise had been set, and he knew he would never be willing to break such trust in the girl's heart, someday, Damian Wayne would take it upon himself to search for his blue-eyed angel, and hopefully, it'll be in a time not too far from now, when he's more in touch with his emotions.

With a final look over his shoulders and careful placement of his domino mask, Damian stepped into the zeta-tube and disappeared from the new holder of his heart.

  
  
  
  



	9. a long awaited meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part two of let your walls down

Looking out of his window had become a near-constant, it being something he did daily while home from school or patrol, and it never being just his bedroom door window, wherever he was, he always made it his mission, his goal to search out the nearest window, take his seat, and gaze out longingly.

It had been nearly seven years since he'd last seen her blue eyes and her wide smile, and yet, he couldn't find himself tearing away from his memory. The young girl who had all but demanded he treats her with respect had never left his mind.

Damian, offended, wondered why it was she never came to visit Gotham, or why he had never attempted to see his angel in disguise after stepping through that zeta-tube. 

He had promised to Marinette that they would see each other again, he just hadn't anticipated it being so long. Seven long years at that. 

The family and those around him had taken notice to the slightest of changes that had come towards the youngest Wayne's way. He still tended to go off, but his temperament had matured, lowered even, it was harder to anger the teenage boy now, had been ever since he'd left whatever it was he had experienced back in China at the age eleven. 

Damian shook himself out of his thoughts and turned to look behind him. There stood Dick Grayson, with a raised eyebrow and deep frown set upon his face. The older man tended to look more in more at his younger brother with such features on his never-aging face as if he was still seeing Damian for the first time, it kind of bothered the younger. Even, he'd decided to let it slide since he knew he had drastically changed out of nowhere after only a month away from his family.

"Hey, little D, I've been calling out to you for five minutes, everything alright up in that head of yours?" 

Damian furrowed his eyebrows and looked down at the fist that clinched at his pants, he hadn't realized how into his thinking he had gotten, he usually would've taken notice to any of his brothers, even without them having to call out for him, he was losing his game.

Lately, his focus and goal to fight for justice seemed to be dwindling, no he wasn't thirsting for blood, for the need to kill, or not more than usual, he still had to hold back on those basic instincts he had from his time at the league, but they were easier to control than they had been when he was younger. No, he was just losing the joy in saving a life, in fighting crime, he was pulling more into himself than ever, and he was losing the fire that had kept him going for all those years.

Damian was close to hanging the cape for good.

"Look, B wanted me to gather everyone and into the bat-cave, said he had something important to discuss with us." 

Not a word was spoken from the younger brother; he merely nodded his head and quietly stood from his seat at the window. The forgotten book that had been sitting in his lap falling to the floor, seeming to surprise Damian, but Dick didn't voice his worry, and he watched as the youngest Wayne disappeared behind the secret door disguised as a bookcase before heading off to gather his other siblings. 

\--

Paris seemed extra gloomy as of late to our young heroine. Akumas had been increasing as of late, and the pressure of the major was beginning to become too much for both of our young heroes and their little rag-tag group of hero friends.

Chat Noir had been trying his best to bring up the mood of the Miraculous team, but not much had been able to be done by the young black cat. A thread held the young adults. They had been denied asking for any help by professionals by said mayor who began demanding for Hawkmoth to be stopped, slowly turning the citizens of Paris on their idols. 

The team was lost and didn't know what to do.

Ladybug sighed and shook her head as she looked down at the map laid out before her and her team. They had set up a sort of base in Master Fu's old apartment, meeting nightly to throw in any discoveries that could help lead them to the identity of the terrorist at hand.

The tension between the friends in and out of costume was beginning to be too much for the red and black-clad hero, so she breathed out a steady breath, stood straight and crossed her arms against her chest. 

"Alright, I know what Mayor Bourgeois has said about seeking outside professional help, but we are all at ropes end, we need fresh eyes- trained eyes at that, and I'm not saying that the evidence that we have gathered over the years isn't helping- it is, slowly- but we need someone who's been doing detective work for years, someone who can understand and piece together the puzzles we've never been able to place into spot, so I've called up the Batman and his team."

Everyone whispered amongst one another in worry; they feared that their fearsome leaders' plan would fall through, it's not that they doubted her, it's just the fact that being under Hawkmoth's reign for so many years has got them being more cautious. Everyone was trying to keep all of their cards close to their chests.

Ladybug took notice to this, she didn't blame them for being wary, they all had the right to be, and especially to new players being added to their chest game, but she knew it was something that needed to be done.

Something that should've been done sooner rather than later. 

"Look, I know what you're all thinking, I do, but we need this. We need the help of the Dark Knight, we need his and his teams skill set brought into our folds, and if need-it-be, I will give a miraculous out to his team, if he is willing to lend them, and only if we are in dire need of the assistance. He had also granted us access to their Zeta-tube's to meet him at the Watchtower, but only for tonight, so get ready, we leave in twenty minutes."

Everyone scurried around the small apartment in chase of their collection of evidence, and they didn't want to leave any piece of their scattered puzzle behind. They needed their helpers to know they weren't slacking in trying to bring down their reign of terror.

Chat Noir halted in his search and walked over towards his partner, who seemed nearly as if she didn't want to go through with the meeting at hand.

The black cat holder sighed and placed down his box he had held in his hand and walked on over to a strong faced ladybug. 

He prayed he didn't come out with any puns. 

"Hey bug, everything alright in there?" 

The hero in question shook her head and gave the other a tight-lipped smile. He knew she'd try and lie her way out of it, and he was going to bring a stop to that. His lady didn't need to carry the weight of the world on her firm, but petite shoulders. The black cat could take some of the extra baggage as well.

"Only thinking of a friend… who oddly enough reminds me of Batman's Robin…" 

Ladybug trailed off once again and sighed before shaking out her head. "I know Robin, met him once when I was younger, I would like to call him my friend, best friend at that, but I haven't seen him in at least seven years."

The two fell into silence shortly after and silently watched as the others finished up their tasks at hand. Tonight would be a busy night, and they had to be prepared for anything that would be handed towards them, help, or an attack.

\--

"Why call upon me, and why not the rest of the Justice League?" 

A wanting welcome it seemed, Ladybug sighed as she helped place down a box from her arms onto the round table that stood before her. It seemed as if only Batman had called upon the meeting for himself, and excluded the rest of his team entirely. Ladybug didn't like this.

The messages the two exchanged had made it sound as if the Dark Knight would be bringing along his people, the team of which he's said to trust, but looking around the empty table seemed to prove the young hero otherwise, she hoped she was wrong. Robin and his other teammates didn't deserve that kind of treatment.

"I had a valid reason, and I wouldn't want the team- which is built mainly of supers- to end up becoming akumatized, the result would be devastating for both my team and the people of Paris. All of you are mastered in fighting techniques, while some of us may have and still are taking self-defense courses, it's nothing compared to the years upon years your team has had their hand in."

Batman narrowed his eyes and took in what had just been saying. He knew her words to be accurate, his team, well the second one at that, was mainly built up of super-powered individuals, and the strength of these people would do alarming damage to the surrounding area of Paris, and that's not counting on the Miraculous Cure taking effect once being called upon.

Nodding his head, Batman stood aside, motioning for the rest of her team to set down the loads in their arms. 

"Alright, you can come in now." 

A doorway behind the bat opened, and light flooded the dimly lit meeting room he and the young group of heroes stood in. Everyone held the breaths as one after another the vigilantes of Gotham flooded in and crowded around the table, the last one to make their presence known as a somewhat reluctant Robin at that. A Robin who it seemed now greatly towered over Ladybug. 

It made the silver-eyed hero frown slightly. The boy seemed off, and as if he was closing himself off, she didn't like that, and before she could stop herself, she called out, "Shaytan?"

Robin froze at the words he knew to be directed towards him and only him. Even the voice that called out sounded familiar but older, and he couldn't place it. 

Furrowing his eyebrows, he looked up and into the stormy-grey eyes of the hero on the other side of the oval-shaped table. Of course, only one person called demon in his native tongue, that one person being a blue-eyed girl with signature pigtails, not unlike the ones of the girl before him, but Robin wasn't desperate enough to push his wishes onto the person before him.

"Who are you, and why are you calling me such a name?" 

Ladybug's smile faltered slightly before she realized what she had said and placed a stony face upon her features. She couldn't give herself away, not even to the boy she so desperately wished to speak with, not in this moment, but it seemed as if she couldn't get out of the situation she so I willingly placed herself in, for the stubborn teen pressed on.

The atmosphere became rather tense; everyone could practically feel the daggers through the current Robin's eyes as they laid upon the red and black heroine. 

No one seemed up to the task of stepping in between whatever emotions had been brought forth, even batman, the man best known for breaking in any form of tense within his group, seems to opt-out of pulling his youngest away. Something inside the older male was telling him to watch everything unfold before his very eyes. 

"A friend," taking in a shaky breath and tugging at her arm nervously had caught the youngest vigilantes eyes, he knew that quirk. However, Marinette didn't use it all that often while around him, he had seen the young girl use the motion enough for him to take notice, "when I was younger, he taught me a few words in his native tongue, and that one- that one in particular stuck to me... it was a joke of a nickname, but he'd liked it enough for it to stick." 

Damian sighed and looked down at his clenched fists. He hadn't expected to run into the girl he had promised all those years in a situation like this, but then again, is life called for unlikable situations, and he'd have to pull through with them, no matter how badly they could become in the end. 

"Thiên thần…" 

Before anyone could question him, Damian silently went towards the pigtailed girl before stopping only a few inches before her. The two looked upon one another with gentle faces. Taking in the times, they had missed out on with one another. They were learning their life secrets through a bond that didn't need words. They had always been that way, and seeing the connection remained calmed both minds and brought them even more at ease. 

"We can trust them, father." 

And with those words, Damian reached up and removed his domino mask, causing gasps and bark of an order from his side of the table. 

"Only Lucifer knows how much I trust Thiên thần."

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damian is calling Marinette angel in Vietnamese while Marinette calls Damian demon in Arabic.
> 
> Not going to lie, I scrolled through different languages on google translate and chose the ones I liked best. 
> 
> Oh, if you guess wanna like ask me a question  
> I have a Tumblr where I sometimes post prompts I won't write if you ever feel like trying to scroll down and find em. Anyways it's superlonelypin.


	10. blueberries and apples

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a follow along of tomatoes and cherries, but not much daminette. This oneshot is focused around Jon and Nino.
> 
> I published this here because I don't know how to create tags on this website...

It was a sunny summer afternoon out on the Kent farm. The whole family had gathered around on one of the fields to the back of the area with a checkered blanket laid out beneath them as a picnic basket sat to their side. It was one of the few days that Clark and Lois got off from the Daily Planet, and a day was chosen to travel back to Smallville to have a small family reunion. Conner had even joined them, having flown in from the Titans tower for the event.

Jon was four at the time, still too young to have this memory stored in his young and developing brain, but it was a day that every older Kent on that field would remember.

The family had finished off their lunch, Jon, the young and energetic four-year-old that he was, had wandered a safe distance off with Krypto while the others stayed out, keeping an eye on the half-human child. 

Ma, the ever-lovely Mrs. Kent, had run in to grab one of her famed blueberry pies. She had insisted that everyone should stay a little longer, at least to enjoy a slice of dessert before making their way back to their own respective homes. The older woman tended to grow lonely now that she had the farmhouse to herself. Her husband had passed while Clark was still in her late teens, and Conner, having moved into the Titans Tower (with regular visits, of course, he loved Ma Kent too much to go extended amounts of time without seeing her) had begun to make her old home feel empty, so of course, she would ask her most favorite people in the world to stay longer. 

"Alright, here we are, one warm and homemade blueberry pie for my favorite people in the world." 

This had grabbed the attention of everyone. Even little Jon, who had wandered nearly to the cornfield, had run back over in excitement to try his Ma's famed dessert for the first time. His parents had been somewhat hesitant to introduce him to any fruits at such a young age, and as of recently did they only start beginning to open up their son's world into fruits. Their own experiences with each other's fruit still very fresh in their minds, they hadn't wanted their young son dealing with a reaction like that while still teething, even yet they hesitated to give him a slice of the pie, but they had caved into his pleading blue eyes.

The regret was ever letting him have that pie. 

After just one bite, everyone could tell something was instantly wrong with the blue-eyed boy sitting down beside his dog. He began to struggle with speaking, grabbing at his neck as he began to cry and gasp from the swelling in his throat. He tried calling out to his parents, his brother, who had instantly stood and pulled him into his arms, and grandmother who looked greatly heartbroken. 

"I've got him, clean everything up, and meet me at Metropolis General." Conner didn't let anyone finish what they had to say before he shot up into the air, with the younger half-Kryptonian struggling to stay awake. 

"Oh, God, oh no." Martha cried out as she dropped the pie cutter to the checked picnic blanket and put her face into her hands as her shoulders began to shake. She couldn't get the look of her grandson's swelling face and tear blue eyes from her thoughts. The image forever haunts her, just like how Clark's had the day they had discovered Lois's favorite fruit. That day had been similar to today; she and Jonathan had gone out for a picnic with a ten-year-old Clark at their side to a lovely park in Metropolis for a picnic and their young son's first visit to the big city.

Martha had packed grapes, the first time she'd ever bought them in years, and she had felt that that day out was a day for grapes how she had come to regret that a young Clark's face had begun to tear up and break out in hives just like his own son's just now. That had ripped a scream out of Martha. After that day, for nearly a year, she had been unbearably clingy to the boy.

"It's my fault, all over again." She sobbed out, and she curled into herself, he elbows, digging into her lap as she began to shake harder. She didn't know if she could bring herself to being near little Jon, the fact that she had put the young boy in danger playing over and over in her head, though, as everyone knows, being around fruits was always unpredictable.

"Ma, look at me. It's not your fault; this was bound to happen, you know this. From your own experiences and mine, we can never predict when these events will be happy, and yes, Lois and I had been reluctant at giving him anything fruit-based and knew that we would need to open up to the idea. We didn't want him growing up thinking he didn't have a soulmate. Yes, while seeing my son struggle with breath because of an allergic reaction is traumatic, that just means we don't have to sit on edge any longer wondering if one day, we won't be anywhere near him to help him during his discovery." 

Martha and looked up into the clear blue eyes of her son. His face red and tear-stained, not unlike hers, but with a gentle smile and a comforting hand on her shoulder. She knew he spoke the truth, but it was still difficult to wrap her head around. She too had struggled with this when Clark was little, and Jonathan, her sweet husband, had spoken almost the same words to her all those years ago. It warmed her heart.

"You're right, but now we must go, little Jon must be so scared." 

Clark smiled wider and pulled his mother into a hug.

\--

Nino's experience came shortly after Marinette's very public soulmate reveal. Both aged six, and both in areas surrounded by people, though he was lucky in the Dupain-Cheng bakery and not out in a park with other six-year-olds. The two friends sat in the living room, a young Marinette showing off her growing art skills while Nino showed off his favorite artists of the week.

Nino's mother had warned the Dupain-Cheng's that the young boy had yet to find his soulmate's fruit still. The couple had assured the single mother that if anything were to happen while he was under their roof, they would care for Nino properly and deliver him to the hospital. However, everyone under that roof and Marinette herself had hoped nothing would happen. The poor girl didn't like talking about the red fruit that had closed her throat. 

"Once I get better, you'll let me design outfits for you, right No?" 

The two friends smiled at one another, and the darker-skinned boy nodded excitedly. He had been watching steadily as the smaller girl at his side had gained more and more confidence in her skills, even to the point of venturing out and practicing on sewing pieces of cloth together when they had nothing better to do. He would be lying if he said her handy work on the stitching wasn't phenomenal; the young boy could barely tell whether or not she had stitched pieces of fabric together or not.

The two sat in relative silence, Nino's weekly playlist playing softly as the two enjoyed quietly bringing forth pointers to either one's projects. Marinette helped place inspiration in a small tone the other was creating, while Nino pointed out details he thought would look best elsewhere on whatever design had grabbed his attention. It was just really a routine for young friends. 

Soon enough, Sabine stepped in with a gentle smile directed to both children and placed down an old-fashioned apple crisp, one of Marinette's favorite desserts, but her favorite being anything with cherries. 

"The bakery is closed, so I thought I'd bring in one of the leftover desserts for you two to share with everyone." 

Marinette knew that Sabine wouldn't be leaving the room in the small chance of Nino's soulmate's fruit being an apple, and how grateful she was that her mother had. 

Everything seemed to be going fine because the brown-eyed boy sat to the side of his friend. He had managed to finish the whole Apple Crisp before anything alarming signs began to take place. Everyone had settled down and turned on a game when all of a sudden, while Nino fell over into Marinette's lap as he began to wheeze, the blue-eyes of his best friend widened as she began to see his lips start to swell. 

Not long after, the whole family had called upon his mother and rushed to the closest hospital. The bakery soon stopped serving anything apple-related. For the longest time, the youngest Dupian-Cheng would be riderend into a panic attack after laying eyes upon the very fruit as seeing her closest friend beg for breath had scared her nearly greater than the time she had the same experience. 

"Hey, dudette." The nickname was new and made Marinette giggle as she excitedly pulled her friend into a hug. Nino had been forced to stay home by his mother for the whole week after the incident, and it had left both Kim and Mari anxious to see their brown-eyed friend. 

"So, Kim and I had to keep an eye out on you." 

"Not as much as we will for you." 

\--

Nearly three years had gone by since Damian and Marinette's soulmate reveal, and since Superboy's and Carapace's ever brief flirt.

Robin had stayed behind to become the new Black cat for a short amount of time, but a time of which everyone quickly fell in love with the cold and closed off hero who had been more about work than flirting. Now said boy wonder was back in Gotham, currently going up against Killer Croc with overly excited Superboys at his side.

"Drop the excitement. It's rather bothersome." 

"What, I can't be excited about my best friend's upcoming wedding?" 

Robin groaned and swiftly pulled a move that had Croc landing with a heavy thud. The meta remained still, allowing for the duo to swiftly tie him up, in wait for the DEO to take him in. 

The wedding that the young Kryptonian had come as a rather big surprise. No one had expected Damian al GHUL Wayne to bend down on one knee after only a year of dating his soulmate and proposing to her. His own family had nearly had a heart attack at such a piece of news, but we're excited for the teenager to have found the one that had famed the fire in his soul. 

"And why is it being held here, shouldn't it be held somewhere where the Wayne family isn't the target of nearly every villain of the city?" 

Damian tisked and sheathed his katanas. The green-eyed boy had taken a seat with his Thiên thần, an hour of going back and forth on changing the location of their wedding had taken place. Still, Marinette was not changing her mind; she had firmly put her foot down on the thought, even went as far as completely lifting the taller male off his feet into the air in a threatening manner. Of course, Damian hadn't felt the threat, but he had caved, his love for the blue-eyed girl shining through in the end. His brothers had teased him for a week after that.

"Look, there is no changing Mari's mind, I already tried that in the beginning, remember." Superboy snorted and looked on longingly at the sky. The teenager's superhero was still waiting for the moment he'd meet his own. The moment of a complete reorganization of feeling whole, something he hadn't felt his whole life. 

\--

The day of the wedding had arrived nearly as soon as Jon had mentioned it, and the sunshine of a Kryptonian was bounding on the balls of his feet in excitement. He watched his stubborn best friend dancing gracefully with his new wife pulled safely to his chest in the middle of the Wayne Manor ballroom. 

The reception had been long and somewhat boring. Still, the garden hand been decorated beautifully and complemented Marinette's beautiful red and white Champagne wedding dress, something she had probably worked overtime one, what with hiding it from her now-husband, who had nearly cried at the cite of his soulmate walking down the aisle, but the tanned teenager was too proud to admit such a thing to anyone, good thing the whole family had caught his reaction on tape.

After a while of standing and watching the newlyweds dancing their night away, Jon caught upon this urge of being pulled towards the direction of the DJ station the young boy had felt the pull at the beginning of the night. Still, as the minutes passed and slowly turned into hours, the pull turned into a tug, and once he couldn't ignore any longer. So, with one last gulp of his water (Jon would never drink anything alcohol, the taste being too bitter and burned at his throat) before he turned away and followed the tugging of his chest. 

Now, of course, there was no red string that he could see. Still, the sensation going through him was one that was only described in fantasy stories, the ones of a string lighting up and guiding you to your intended, how he desperately wished that was the case instead of the food allergy, his Ma, bless her heart, had always treated Jon like glass after the incident from when he was four. 

Jonathan soon came to a stop. He had reached the booth, and what he saw had wholly taken his breath away. 

Now, it's about cliche, but Jon felt as if at that moment, his soulmate was glowing. The light seemed to hit the darker boy's golden-brown eyes in just the perfect way, making them look more of a golden yellow than golden brown, and his hair was styled in dreads that seemed to frame his full-face perfectly. The boy himself appeared to be having trouble grasping at the other standing before him.

Jon watched as the mystery boy flagged down one of his staff and motioned for them to take his spot. The golden-eyed boy removed his headset from around his neck and quickly tumbled down the stage in a graceful way that none of the Kent men would ever be able to tackle.

"Hi, wow, damn, okay, you're so much more handsome up close." A blush settled on both teenagers' faces; Jon reached up and rubbed at the back of his neck. He wasn't embarrassed persay, the complement had taken him off guard, and he's guessing it had taken his soulmate by surprise as well. 

"Ah, sorry… I'm Nino, by the way." Golden eyes boy, now known as Nino, held out his hand and had a shy smile playing on his lips, and Jonathan, being the ever bright person he was, completely ignored the outstretched hand and pulled the boy into a hug. The shorter boy instantly melted into the half-humans arms and wrapped his own around Jon's waist. 

"Hi Nino, I'm Jon, and I'm so glad to meet you, my lovely soulmate, finally." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you ever want ask me questions, feel free too, I will most likely respond faster through through ask on my Tumblr @/superlonelypin


	11. dance with the devil

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bio! dad Constantine
> 
> also my part in maribat salt September. The prompt is for day nine, "well, Lucifer shouldn't be kept waiting."

Constantine whistled as he took in the sight before him. A class full of French students looked on in amazement and horror as they took in the form of Swamp Thing. Never before had they seen a creature entirely made out of plants, and never would they have expected for their class president to run on up to the monster and hug him happily. The whole thing had made the blond man laugh loudly, grabbing the attention of said students and pulling their gazes onto him.

"Well, you've done it short stuff, completely broken the minds of that horror class of yours." 

Marinette glared at the blond, her arms still barely wrapped around the Thing. It had been too long since she had seen anyone of the Dark Justice League, and far longer since she had seen her dear father Constantine, but that didn't mean she appreciated him calling her short stuff.

"You're fucking lucky I never grasped the concept of magic, Constantinople." 

The two then began to bicker, the shorter teenager having a long letten go of her monster friend and now stood nearly toe to toe with the blond stranger who reeked of cigarettes. The students all sat back and watched, each struggling to come up with words to break with the small argument at hand.

"Well, as fun as this has been, I must get going shortness, call me if you need me." 

Marinette grumbled and crossed her arms over her chest. The glare in her eyes lessened as a soft, sad smile found its way to her lips. As much as the two bickered between one another, she was always sad to see the older British man leave, always had been after he had placed her before two bakers for her safety. However, he may be her biological father; she never did call him so. The phrase seemed to crawl under his skin. He tried not letting it show, but he was never good at hiding things from his daughter.

"Hey, no frowns on that beautiful face of yours, I'll be back, promise," Though he promised, he never knew for how long he would be gone; his only daughter had been raised with him pretty much being out of a majority of her life, it was just the way he lived, and because of the danger that followed after him. It had taken all of Constantine to keep this little secret from everyone but those he could trust, which were very few people at that. He'd never be able to live with himself if the only light in his life was taken out, "and this time, not weeks on end, I've gotta make a jump to hell. Luci deserves a good yelling at." 

With a nod to her head, Marinette slowly walked over to her father and wrapped him up into a tight hug. The older man tensed up slightly before instantly relaxing. He sensed no danger, and never would in the teenager held to his chest. 

With a quick kiss to her head, and a small smirk gracing his lips, Constantine whispered a few words before disappearing, leaving behind the faint smell of cigarettes and an undertone of something else entirely different. 

"Okay, what was that, and why do weird things continue to happen when you're around?" Alya, who's glasses had slipped nearly to the tip of her nose, called out as she pointed an accusing finger to her blue-eyed classmate and stood before the plant-based creature. 

Alya was undoubtedly correct. Their whole class trip, everyone had pretty much seen almost everyone from the American hero society and villain society walk up to pull the bluentte into tight embraces, some even lingered around to join the tours the teenagers where on, of course, Marinette had kept everyone in check and wrapped around her fingers as they walked along, even going as far as glaring at the visiting adults if they even so much as looked in the wrong direction. 

The class had begun to grow weary of their everyday ladybug. As each day passed, and newer and newer strangers who seemed to know the girl showed up, fewer and fewer of the students associated themselves with the blue-eyed teen. Even Lila had stepped down from her game of spewing tales as she took notice of the attention that her rival was getting, and they hadn't even reached Gotham yet, she only wondered what kind of attention would be brought upon Marinette once they reached the crime capital.

The thought alone made the Italian girl shiver.

"He's someone rather dear to me, and no, I will not give you the pleasure of knowing who exactly he is to me, every one of you, except for Nino and Kim, have lost that privilege of knowing anything about me." Marinette faced the class off before her. Her arms crossed and close to her chest, her usually relaxed and happy face was set in a stone-cold glare directed directly at her ex-best friend, the look alone had Alya shrinking away and binding behind the tall frame of Ivan.

Everyone slowly began to trickly away, soon leaving behind Nino and Kim as they waited patiently for their friend to say her final good-byes to the tall green plant man before them.

"It was really good seeing you again, Alec, and please, try keeping dad in line." 

The Swamp Thing simply grunted in response before gently patting the head of the small human girl before him and leaving. 

"Dudette, you didn't tell us your family was this awesome!" 

\----

Constantine stumbled forward and huffed in annoyance as he straightened his trench coat. A warm greeting always was by any demons of hell. Even with Luci knowing of his arrival, he still left for the ones holding a grudge against the blond male to deal with him. 

"I'd say you almost didn't want to see me; you stuck up prick." Looking around, he could see that he was alone, but being alone didn't necessarily mean the devil wasn't watching. The man always seemed to have eyes on him, even when the fallen angel took his trips up to the surface world. The eyes of hell were always waiting for one John Constantine. 

"Yes, why would anyone want to see someone as annoying as you?" 

John rolled his eyes and stepped forward. He reached out blindly and instantly held onto the buttoned dress shirt of the very angel before him, the man was always dressed to impress, and if the devil didn't fancy himself up even more so for the man before him, well then, he would be lying to himself no-doubt about it. 

Lucifer raised an eyebrow and smiled wickedly. He so dearly loved messing around with the magician before him, always fun to pull the Brit into a teasing game, still ever, so fun to rile the man up enough to burst his ever so small bubble, and ever so willing to take everyone away from him. Well, almost everyone, he'd never be willing to take the young girl with his clear blue eyes. He had nearly tried before, but upon seeing the poor girl (he usually didn't even bother, or have the heart to ruin the innocence of children) as a means of getting to John was when he knew he would come ever to regret hurting a single hair on the child's head.

Constantine and Lucifer both glared at one another for minutes, both with their fists still clutching at the materials of their shirts, and both ever so unwilling to break down to the other's power. Nonetheless, soon one of them did, and Constantine was the sore loser, like always.

"Well, still an ever-annoying mouth you have there, Cons." The devil hummed and leaned forward to ghost his lips against his blond companions before pulling away and chuckling as he fiddled with his dress shirt cuffs.

"Now, what does this visit have in tow, Johnny boy, do you have any more information to give to a devil's willing ears?" 

"I have a favor, and yes, you will get your payment. It has to do with cupcakes class, in particular two of its students, the other, just mess with their everyday lives and I'll call it a day, but it's these two that have bitten off more than they can chew." 

Constantine's statement instantly gained the ears of Lucifer. The brunette immediately sat and placed his fingertips together as he focused in on the news that the trench-coat wearing man had to say. 

"One, a liar in pig-tails has sought out to alienate little miss short stuff, leaving only two companions to her name, that being two boys going by the names Nino and Kim. This little Italian mess has also been making claims to several other people- including those in the celebrity world- and if I remember correctly, I think I heard something about one Lucifer Morningstar and his famed club. While the other, a glasses-wearing girl by the name of Alya, writes up these fantasies for everyone to read. The poor girl wants to be a journalist one day, but I don't see that happening, what with no fact-checking." 

The room in which the two adults stood in began to heat up slowly. Sweat began to bead heavily at Constantine's forehead, and damp spots showing up underneath the arms of his trench-coat. Without a second thought, the garment had been removed along with his red tie being loosened as he watched the fallen angel before he fester in anger at the happenings that had fallen upon the girl he'd begun to view as his step-daughter. 

"Now, has much as I would love to have these two in my very own, personally designed hell for them, I must keep to my promise and not interfere with children, I can not in any way fiddle with the path of which their lives lead, but I can observe and prepare for their time here, as well, as I help to slowly unveil the stories of which this monster has spun around herself and our little Morningstar." 

"You took the words right out of my mouth, Luci." 

\-----

The class had barely even made it into Wayne Enterprise before Marinette had nearly been tackled by a man half her size. The smile on the adult's face practically outshined her own as the two exchanged happy words in several different languages; it had begun to spin the minds of the ever-watching eyes of the teenagers left to gawk. 

Now taking a step back from one another, the blue-eyed male took in the sight of the French students before him. His friendly demeanor soon turned standoffish and cold. A frown quickly grew to replace the smile that had made his youthful face look decades older. Never before had these kids seen anything like the look this man had taken. It both scared and intrigued them.

"I best move these kids along before the demon spawn can get his eyes set on them. We both know nothing good will come out of that interaction." The stranger, who's black hair was a wild mess, spoke as he motioned on towards the entry of the Wayne tower, he had yet to introduce himself and didn't seem rather up to the task of doing so. 

Everyone had made a move to follow the man into the building, the only ones staying behind being Marinette and her two friends as they patiently awaited an arriving figure. This boy had a tan complexion and haunting emerald green eyes that held a fire so destructive that they put Lila to shame. 

The small group paid little attention to the fleeing class. Their attention entirely focused on the new stranger, who was now gently speaking. 

"It would seem I have missed my introduction." Marinette rolled her eyes and smiled fondly at the taller boy standing to her side. She had known Dick would pull of move such as this, going into the ranks of a tour guide to stop his younger brother from committing an international murder. The older man had the best intentions at heart, but it still put a damper on the teenager's mood from seeing the drama unfold before her very eyes, but all of that could come later.

"Dick just wanted to prevent you from harming anyone, and I'm with him on that, you're very overprotective out big here." Nino nodded and pointed his thumb out towards his shorter friend. Kim could only agree, by god had they been terrified when Robin nearly slit Chat Noir's throat once he had witnessed the constant harassing and advances towards Ladybug. Carapace had to help King Monkey down from a panic attack that night.

Once the two boys had learned the identity of Robin, and who exactly he was to their bug was when the three boys formed a sort of pack, and that was keeping their only hope in their lives safe from any threat. It had worked in the end and still was to this day. They had taken care of the problem at hand with Chat Noir and had completely removed Andrien Agreste. No, the former black cat was not dead. He was permanently removed from Paris and was pretty much banned from ever stepping foot back into France. The government had not taken kindly to the teenager stepping in to help with his father's terror.

"Well, as much as I do love a simple chat, I believe Jon is headed this way to collect both of his beloveds." No dinner had those words left; the green-eyed male's lips did Jon make a soft landing. His bright smile brightens even more once he takes in the sight of both of his boyfriends. The three had a date planned, and the Kent's and Wayne's be damned if anything or anyone attempted to ruin a said outing. 

"See you two later," Jon called out as he and his boys left for their evening together. 

"But do we have to join the tour?" Marinette turned and frowned deeply at her boyfriend. No amount of gentle kisses to her temple would remove such a pout for her lips. 

"I'm afraid so my Thiên thần, but you'll find the result rather pleasant." 

\----

Dick was not a happy camper. He had drawn the short end of the stick out of his other three brothers and was forced to babysit the class that had a rather broad reputation for dismissing facts for fantasy. It was unfortunate because a select few seemed as if they could make it big if only they didn't have one little problem holding them back. Lila Rossi was a rather significant matter that had needed a lot of attention to be dealt with, and slowly at that. The number of lies and stories the young woman had piled up over the years was astonishing. Even going as far back as her time in Italy, they were able to reveal the amount of dirt that had been buried under this one girl's name. 

They had to put Damian on a leash when he discovered all the little Imp had said and continued saying about his girlfriend. His youngest brother was ready to let hell loose on the Italian.

Breaking out of his thoughts, Dick chanced a quick glare at his third youngest brother. Tim had a coffee mug held up to his lips that concealed a sympathetic smile as he took in the lies that had started back up once everyone had distanced themselves from Marinette. They had seemed to completely forget that their four guides had happily greeted her like family only moments ago. It irked him how forgetful everyone seemed to be. Not even the teacher looked as if she was willing to raise a finger to bring a stop to the nonsense leaving one of her students' mouths.

"Alright, if I could please have your attention," Finally, he had gotten the chatting to stop. The group had gone dead silent, the green-eyed girl with front pig-tails only now going pale as she seemed to instantly remember where she was and who it was that was giving the tour. "As you can tell, we are in Wayne Enterprise, and there are some ground rules that will need to be laid out. Number one: no phones, we cannot allow for any information regarding our work to be leaked, so, if you kindly would, please leave your phones in the tubes with your names on them." 

Dick watched as teenager after teenager groaned and grumpily emptied their pockets of their devices and handed them over. All except for Lila, who had a snugs look on her face the whole time. She probably thought that he wouldn't notice her; she was dead wrong; nothing ever escaped the eyes of a bat. 

"You too, Ms. Rossi, no cellphones, and I'm afraid Mr. Kanté, that means leaving the robot behind, had well." Lila went red with embarrassment and reluctantly gave away her device as Max sadly motioned for Markov to wait at the receptionist's desk. "Alright, this isn't more of a rule, but more of a fact. Everything is being recorded; we are in a company with top-secret projects being worked upon, ones that could be beneficial to the lives of many, so we cannot allow for anyone, and I mean anyone, to sneak away. If you do manage to do so, you will be caught and thrown out, instantly taken back to Paris. Everyone signed the agreement, so you should all know of this by now. The second and last rule will be this. Any remarks to the Wayne's of any kind that can be deemed as defamation or slander will be dealt with immediately, this may not seem like a rule to you, but it's something we as a team take very seriously here in Wayne Tower." 

Already Lila could see her world crumbling before her. She hadn't expected the company to be this secure, so tight on keeping its founder and his family so safe and out of the clutches of rumors.

"On that final note, let's start the tour." 

\----

Constantine watched comfortably as he sat back and watched the class gasp in awe at the sights before them. He had just made it into the head office to one Bruce Wayne and smirked as the blue-eyed man glared in annoyance. The look didn't phase him much; everyone tended to look in his general directions with daggers in their gaze. 

"So, you're telling me you up and involved the devil with our plans?" Bruce had sighed heavily and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. He had only met the man once, and he wasn't sure if the devil before him had been threatening or plane out flirting, but whatever it was, it had gotten under his skin, and he hadn't been willing to work with the man ever again. 

"Oh, no, he's been in it since the beginning, slightly pulling strings to this Lila girls fall. Now, he's not planning her death, no, he's bringing forth her fall to power and hold over the class. He suspects, and I believe he's rather right, that our little front pig-tails girl is meta." 

The CEO hummed and leaned slightly forward on his desk as he took in the footage of the security camera. The class had just made it onto the third floor, the dining area of the company, and had stopped for a lunch break. Damian and the daughter of the magician before them had joined them shortly after they had reached the floor, but the two stuck to themselves and sat amongst the rest of the Wayne sons; Duke had even taken a day from school to watch their plan unfold.

"Would make sense, but then again, we have people who aren't meta's and who are just as good as deceiving people, even with poorly thought out rumors such as Ms. Rossi's." 

"My money is still set on her being a meta." 

The two fell back into silence. Bruce had a few more minutes before he was needed in the large stage room for the classes "screening" on the history and goals of the company they had stepped foot in. 

"Well, as lovely as this chat has been, I'm afraid that I am needed elsewhere." Bruce stood and buttoned his suit jacket cuffs. He motioned towards the door and walked away, hoping that he wouldn't have to deal with the chain smoker in his office any longer. 

"Can't get rid of me that easily Wayne, that's my daughter in there, and I'm going to be in that room for every minute." A pained groan escaped the billionaire's lips. He could tolerate working with the chain smoker in his nightly activities but having to put up with the man in his civilian life was showing to be difficult. The knowing thought that the daughter of the blond man was dating his youngest didn't leave his thoughts. It just cemented the fact that Constantine would show up more frequently in his everyday life.

\----

All eyes were focused on the top of the stage. The small cinema experience had passed without any problems from the students sitting in the auditorium. A few murmurs would be passed around, but that was expected from people of such an age; now they only awaited for Bruce Wayne, the CEO of Wayne Enterprises, to step forth and give his speech, but before the blue-eyed adult could, someone else entirely stepped through the curtains on the stage. 

"Ah, always wonderful seeing a room full of children. Now, which one of you is Lila Rossi." The stranger called out as his eyes swept over the confused gazes of the students before him, his eyes only stopping once they spotted a beet red Marinette who was glaring over at the devil on stage. He chuckled slowly and shook his head. 

He knew she wanted him out of her business, for whenever the devil got involved with petty mortal matters, things seemed to get more complicated than they needed to be. 

No one spoke up, and Lucifer smirked as he zeroed in on the one he was searching for. He knew nothing of her appearance. What gave the green-eyed Imp away was that she was slowly sinking in her chair, praying for the earth to swallow her whole. The attention Lila was getting was the girl wasn't a fan of. 

"Ah, yes, you with the front pig-tails, please stand." The class murmured in excitement as their friend slowly stood from their spot. Everyone was excited for the girl who was finally getting the recognition she deserved from all of the people she claimed to know. 

The devil smirked and clapped his hands. The room went completely dark, save for the back-drop screen that slowly lowered behind him and a spotlight shining down on Ms. Rossi, completely blinding the green-eyed teenager I'm the process. 

Now everyone turned to one another in confusion. The events playing out before then didn't point to love or care; rather, it seems as if the goal of the British man on stage was to embarrass Lila to bring forth a humiliation that would take a lifetime for the poor girl to get over. Only Marinette and the strange boy from before sat back with slight smiles playing across their lips. They had known the family had planned this girl's downfall, but they didn't realize that the devil himself had been pulling strings to get where they were today. It made Marinette's heart swell with admiration of the fallen angel. 

"Now, before we get started, Ms. Rossi, what is it you desire most?" 

And with that single sentence, all hell broke loose. 

\----

Marinette stood proudly by the side of her father. Her arms wrapped tightly around her boyfriend's waist as they watched silently. Lila had been escorted out by Commissioner Gordon and was now being ripped a new one by her very mother. The woman had flown from Paris once she had gained news of the restraining orders and lawsuits that had been built upon for her only child. 

The class, who had been left to gawk in the auditorium, just now made their way to the front of the tower. They all looked around with shame written on their faces. They had treated someone they had known for years terrible. Had dismissed the girls, please, for them to open their eyes for one of lies and promises. They two had been presented with punishment, but not ones as severe as Lila Rossi's and Alya Césaire's. Those two wouldn't be able to live a life with the number of charges brought into their names. 

"I'll get you for this Dupian-Cheng! I'll see you in hell, and I'll gladly rip those disgusting blue-eyes from your socket! I'll laugh as you howl out for help and plead for the pain to stop! You'll wish you never crossed paths with me." Everyone around them froze. No one had expected Lila ever to say such things. The shock of hearing the distraught Italian wish for pain upon Marinette sent shivers down to everyone's core. If Damian's hold on his girlfriend tightened and pulled her closer to his chest, Constantine didn't comment. He only turned his own blue eyes to the poisonous green of Lila's. 

"Well, Lucifer shouldn't be kept waiting. He does have a spot for you in hell, but not the one you're thinking of." 

"No truer words have ever been spoken." The devil smiled and turned towards the paling young girl. Her green eyes looked almost sickly to her now white completion as she took in the real face of the devil. 

"She shouldn't have messed with my morningstar." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes, I posted this a whole day early.
> 
> Sorry if it's kind of bleh, it was going places in my head and just turned out this way... It's not my best and definitely not my favorite. Also, the title is Dance with the Devil because that's one of my favorite Breaking Benjamin songs and I couldn't think of anything else, if you think it should be titled anything else let me know your thoughts or preferences.
> 
> I may take a break from writing Daminette one-shots. It's only because I want to start writing for my other one-shots book in the Ruby Red fandom, I only have on chapter and I need ideas for the next one, so I'll be brain storming for that.
> 
> I'm free to answering questions and responding faster through asks on my Tumblr @/superlonelypin


	12. In the name of hugs

"What are you doing?" 

Marinette yelped and promptly shut her laptop. The voice of Nightwing had caught her completely off guard; she hadn't expected for the Gotham vigilante to come and visit. Most of the others hadn't shown up for their nightly snacks and tea, only him. She sighed and squared her shoulders and rested her chin upon the top of her palm, a bright smile falling upon her lips as she took in the acrobatic hero standing at the entrance of her balcony door. 

The two, and of course, the other Gotham heroes, had struck up a quick friendship. What, with her delicious baked goods calling to the late-night heroes and the warm aura falling from her balcony, always seemed to draw in the bat-clan, even the less seen Red Hood found his way is stumbling to the girl's very home, he usually was covered in blood.

"I'm- not much…" 

Marinette cursed as Nightwing's brow raised. She knew he had caught sight of her search engine. The girl, as of lately, was making it her very mission into getting Robin to open up to her. Though the two saw each other as friends, the boy still had yet to allow physical contact; all Marinette wanted to do was pull the youngest vigilante into a hug. The man looked as if he needed it, terribly at that. 

The whole family knew of their friends' plan, all but Robin. Even Batman had gone as far as keeping the young fashion designer's words away from his youngest.

"Okay, fine… I was thinking of getting… Batcow a friend…" A laugh sounded from the oldest in the room, he fell back slightly as his head was thrown back in amusement. He knew that the younger girl was desperate, but he didn't think she was that desperate. He hadn't even known that Robin had told their civilian friend about any of their pets, but, if it were one he'd talk about, those would either be Batcow, Titus, Alfred, or Goliath. 

The French girl frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. Yes, she knew she was taking extreme measures, but they all seemed worth it in her heart. No one could take her mind off of anything once it was settled, and her decision on this had been determined long before any of her hero friends had discovered it. It's just that she finally decided on what kind of animal to give the red and yellow hero.

Marinette's mind was made up about which cow she wanted to gift to Robin. Her eyes had been instantly drawn to a black Galloway cow who had white spots circling his eyes. The animal was beautiful and immediately pulled at her heart; if Nightwing hadn't dropped in at the time he had, she would've already put her money down for the purchase.

But then again, nothing ever goes her way. 

"Look, I just- animals seem to be the only way I can get him to open up! And when he does, he's always sounded rather fond of Batcow, so I thought, she sounded lonely… I mean, she's the only cow, yes I know you guys have other pets, but they range from dogs to cats, and yes, I've heard of the Turkey… so why not give Batcow her little friend…" 

With a shrug to her shoulders, Marinette leaned back into her desk chair. She'd been thinking extra hard on this, even losing sleep on finding the best gift for the boy who's pretty much stolen her heart. 

The two sat in silence for a while. Marinette having last the energy to sleep, seeing as this was her second week on little to no sleep and Nightwing was sitting, looking down at the tiny woman in a new light, no one that he's ever known was willing to do so much for his little brother, all except for Super Boy that is, and that's only because the two have been friends since they were kids.

"That's… you really care for him, don't you? You don't even know his secret identity, none-the-less anyone else's, why are you so willing to go above and beyond for him?" 

Silence soon fell back over the two. Marinette timidly played with a loose string on her pajamas as her older friend waited patiently for her response. 

Though she wasn't new to Gotham, she did understand the importance of keeping an identity hidden in such a work that the bat-clan did. They couldn't risk the people in their civilian lives getting hurt, much worse dying or being used to lure them into a trap. It was just a life that she wished to leave behind, but she still found calling to her.

"Look, you guys are still human; still people under that mask you use to hide your identity. It means that you guys, even on the job, should have someone out there that cares enough for every one of you. May it be through simple acts such as leaving out cookies and tea to buying gifts for birthdays or holidays. It doesn't matter; it only matters that there is someone out there who remembers that you're still human, still a person trying to bring peace into a city such as this one." 

"If there weren't a damn rule set by the bat himself, I would've told you who I was long ago, sunshine." Nightwing smiled brightly and pulled the short woman into his arms, hugging her tightly as he silently thanked her for remembering that he and his family were just people. 

\------

A day or two passed before Marinette saw anyone else, though she still left out the cookies and tea, she knew it was less than likely they would pop back up. The situation with Scarecrow was bad enough that nearly every job had called and instructed that everyone stay home. 

Tonight though, instead of all of the young boys crowding her balcony window and fighting one another to be the first one in, the only one to show up as Robin. He hugs from the roof above her floor. His hood, which generally sat nicely on-top his head hung only an inch off, left for his dark black hair to be seen and his naturally tanned skin to be caught by the soft yellow light of her appointment.

Marinette's heart skipped a beat at sight. 

"Robin, it's been nearly a week!" The taller boy flinched and gracefully lowered himself to the floor. His boots covered in mud, slowly being removed so as not to dirty his friend's apartment flooring.

"Yes, it does seem that the events that held me back were unforeseeable." 

A slight smile graced his lips before drawing back into his ever stoic frown. At least he was no longer tense around the peaceful environment that was the Dupain-Cheng apartment. It had taken him nearly two months to step into the apartment with his teammates and three more months after that to step in on his own. 

Marinette shook her head and motioned for the taller man to step fully into the room. She had a match of warm coconut macaroons waiting on the counter and a pot of green tea brewing on the stove. As soon as Robin had taken his seat at the tiny island in the middle of his friend's living room, the small woman practically shoved the treats under his nose, a bright smile on her lips as she took her seat at his side.

The gift for her hooded friend had been purchased, and the cow was on his way from Smallville, only about two more days before it was due to arrive.

"Look, we've been friends for going on two years, and I still don't know your birthday, you know mine- which, by the way, isn't fair- so, I took to buying you a gift anyways." 

Robin looked on at the girl in silence. He didn't know what to say, and no one even knew his birthday- all except for Pennyworth, who always seemed to know everything- and no one has certainly gone out of their way of getting him gifts. Even without the knowledge of such an event. The fact that this blue-eyed french woman sat before him didn't even have to think, question, or ask anything of him and jumped at the chance caused for something in him to squeeze with fondness, probably his heart, but he would deny this.

He remained in silence, his mouth hanging open as his brain tried to wrap around the thoughtful act taken upon by Marinette. Robin needed to find a way to thank her in return for such a deed. 

"It's not here yet, though! Just about two more days give or take, but when it is, meet me at this address." Marinette smiled even brighter, if possible, and slid a piece of paper over the island's surface and before Robin. The address to a local animal shelter was written onto it.

"Did you- did you get me a dog?" 

"Wouldn't you like to know, boy wonder?" 

\-------

Two days came and went surprisingly fast for the two young adults. With Marinette's head deep in designs and custom orders for her too client's and Robin busy to keep the night streets of Gotham a little safer. The two soon found one another at the Gotham animal sanctuary, Marinette, with a wide grin on her face as she jumped in excitement. Robin, on his end, showed up in civilian clothes and sunglasses, sticking to keeping his identity that much more of a secret from the young french woman and those around them.

"So, I know we've been waiting for two days, but it's only felt like three hours since I told you about your surprise." 

Robin shook his head, an action that allowed Marinette to know that he had indeed rolled his eyes at her excitement, but the movement held fondness behind the move. A slight blush crept up and around the smaller girls' cheeks. She ducked her head down shyly, her dark hair falling to cover her eyes. "So, um… follow me." Without so much of a wave of her hand, Marinette took off and towards the back of the building, an area known for housing the bigger animals of the establishment.

With a raise of his eyebrows, and with not much else to do, the boy wonder shrugged his shoulders and made his trek to the back of the building, much slower than that of his companions' pace. 

Three minutes later, he found him face to face with a young, Galloway black cow. The center of his face splashed with faint white. The boy's heart squeezed at the sight of the animal before him, a look full of complete and utter love replaced his stoic face. His features turning younger than what they usually looked, if anything, he looked his age and younger, the complete change in his facial expression caught Marinette off guard.

"So, what do you think about Nightcow?"

"Nightcow?" The name caught the vigilante entirely off guard. He hadn't expected his new cow to have a name already, and one that stuck to the aesthetic of batcow's own, but the title itself did suit the animal before him. 

"Oh, I picked the name… I thought, you know.. since batcow's name is kind of paying respect to batman… I thought nightcow could pay respects to Nightwing… BuT, you can change it if you want. I understand if you don't like it, besides, he's your cow now…" 

Marinette bit at her lower lip and ducked her head down in shame. She was waiting for the boy wonder to start yelling insults that he had dropped only two months ago. What she wasn't expecting was for the closed off boy, he came close to hissing when it came to any form of physical contact to pull her into his chest. The hug was awkward and could be built upon with practice, but the action on its own caused her bright blue eyes to gently close and for her arms to wrap the vigilante, pulling the taller into a warm hug of her own. 

"Thank you, and the name is… acceptable." 

A snicker sounded out from above them. Both looked up at the roof, and at the makeshift barn the animal sanctuary held in it's back to find Red Hood. His red helmet held to his side under his armpit as he smiled down at the two young adults in his crouched down position. 

"Agent A is so not going to be amused by the new addition to the family." 

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! So I know I said I was going to take a break and try and write for my other one-shot book Stories of Time, but as soon as I did I hit writer's block, so I'm back with more.
> 
> bUt, that's not what I wanted to talk about, I wanted to let you guys know I'm opening up the request for prompts, I'm running out of ideas and wanted to see what all you guys had in mind. :)
> 
> Anyways, if you guys have questions I'll respond faster through my tumblr @/superlonelypin


	13. meeting friends

The night Damian made his way home with Nightcow was interesting. First, Jason, the bain to his existence, wouldn't stop pestering the younger, not couple. After the two young adults had left the front of the barn for the entrance of Gotham's animal sanctuary, Todd had sat in wait for the two, making cooing sounds and stupid faces every time the younger male looked his way. If Damian had had his actual bladed katanas on him that night, the male with the white streak of hair would surely be recovering from two deeply and strategically placed stab wounds. Still, alas, he did not have them, which was a shame, Todd's blood would surely make a lovely sight dripping off his twin blades, but that was something Damian would only ever keep to himself.

Back in the bat-cave, the rest of the clan were gathered around the giant computer. A new case was pulled up on the screen, and the family presently discussed who would take what move into solving the mystery behind it. The problem, Damian did not know, he didn't much rather care to find out. All that mattered to him was slowly introducing his new cow to the rest of his animal familia. 

Somehow, the teenaged boy and the well built Galloway cow went undetected by anyone of the family. They had made it to the small nook of the cave that Bat-cow called her own before being spotted by anyone; he called that a win on his end.

"Uh, what you got there, Little D?" 

Grayson called out. The oldest of the Wayne children had turned at some point during the younger's attempt to go unnoticed. His eyebrow was raised in confusion, and his blue eyes were sparkling with amusement. It seemed to Damian that his brother already knew the answer; he just wanted the younger to suffer having to answer to everyone why he had brought home yet another cow.

"Um… a smoothie?" That in itself wasn't a lie. Before making his way home, Marinette, himself, and Todd had stopped at a Big Belly Burger. Of course, the other two had ordered hamburgers while Damian sat but watched in disgust as they happily ate their meals. The younger Wayne himself going for only a smoothie, even brought an extra one for himself to enjoy while at the house. But the smoothie was something that his older brother wasn't questioning, and Damian knew this. He just didn't feel like pointing out the obvious to the others, as they could see that he had a cow standing at his side.

"I don't quite think that was what Master Richard was pointing out, young master Damian." 

Damian flinched slightly and turned to look on towards Alfred. The older man looked down at the youngest with a pointed look. He had promised no more animals, but how could he say no to a gift, and one that came from a woman with the biggest and bluest eyes he had ever seen? If anything, it wouldn't have been fair to Damian to reject such an offering. 

"This is Nightcow, and it's not like I could've rejected taking him in… he's a gift from Marinette…" Damian mumbled the last part as he took a rather large sip of his smoothie and looked down at his booted feet. He knew everyone had heard what he said, his voice being somewhat amplified from the acoustics of the cave. 

"Oh, I didn't think she had planned on ordering a whole cow, I thought she was getting something… smaller?" Alfred raised an eyebrow at Dick's words and shook his head. He straightened his suit jacket and took the reign from Damian's hand, taking the responsibility of placing Nightcow in his rightful space next to Batcow. 

"Is nobody going to talk about the fact that Damian quoted a meme?" 

Tim called out in distress as everyone began going their separate ways.

\--------

Marinette let out a soft sigh. A few days had gone by since Nightcow had been given over to Robin. The young man had brightened up instantly, even gave the shorter a hug, which she hadn't expected. Yes, the whole idea of getting the young Galloway cow was indeed to invoke a hug from the young, stoic Gotham vigilante, but that didn't mean she was expecting for it to happen, but it had, and Marinette's heart wouldn't stop skipping beats from the very thought.

"Okay, okay, so let me get this straight. You are freaking out because your mystery vigilante boyfriend hugged you over being gifted a cow? And why again do you always fall for the boys with social problems?" 

Nino looked on at his friend in judgment. The two had been up all night discussing everything that had been going on in Marinette's life. Her childhood friend had been swamped with work. His DJing was paying off in the long run. The kid finally hit it big and made a name for himself while his boyfriend, Kim, was training for his competition in the up and coming Olympics games, and finally, Jon, his sunshine of a boyfriend who had nearly been just as busy with interviewing both of them. Their relationship was still pretty much a secret; only Marinette and one of Jon's friends knew of the young poly couple. 

Marinette sometimes envied her best friend. He found it easy with love. Jon and Kim both being sweethearts, the three have been going strong for three years, and here she was, crushing over a hero whose real name she didn't know. Sometimes Marinette hated her taste in men. 

The shorter groaned and flopped her back onto her bed and glared up at the ceiling of her bedroom. "One, he's not my boyfriend, and the fact that he's just recently stopped spewing insults in my general direction makes the hug so much more… I guess, impactful? No, that much more of a surprise! Hell, I got a hug out of all of his family on their first nights of meeting them, and no, not on the same night." 

Nino hummed and placed down the sheet of paper he had been holding. Though he was free from scheduling and any form of an interview, the young man still had music he needed to look over and review, and not long before, Marinette had been finishing up a last-minute commission that was required by tomorrow. Nino laughed gently and removed his glasses before carefully placing them on the bedsheets below him. Seeing his oldest friend becoming so worked up on a crush brought back (some) fond memories. However, not all could be considered fond.

Everyone tried steering clear of mentioning even the last name of who her heart had been calling out to. His memory was a dark smear in their hearts, for both friends. Both had been in love with him, and both had come to regret their hearts chose. Both had grown stronger through the experience, but seeing now that Marinette had opened her heart back up, and to a boy none-the-less who had been rather an ass at the beginning of their friendship, she seemed to have been able to read more in-depth into the boy's soul. She could see into his heart, see the core that he had never let anyone, but his pets see. Robin had a gentler side that wanted to be seen, but he hid it away because he saw that side of himself as a weakness. 

"No, I think I just wait…" 

"Wait for what?" Nino asked eyebrows raised as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. His brown eyes were glowing a soft amber as the light hit them. 

"For whatever the future calls for." 

\----------

Damian grumbled softly as he ran his fingers through his slicked-back hair. The gala was held tonight in honor of his late grandparents, the event taking place in one of his grandmother's favorite libraries. 

Tonight he had hoped for a quiet night in, some patrolling getting done, maybe stopping by Marinette's appointment to let her know that Nightcow had settled in nicely. The young Galloway cow having taken adequately towards Batcow, the other cow at first being weary to the new addition of the family, but finally after a few more weeks of being around the younger cow. The two were now nearly inspirable; you could never find one far from the other. 

"Come now, Damian, no need to look so down." Dick stood in the doorway to Damian's room; his arms were crossed over his chest with a smirk on his lips. 

The youngest could see that his older brother had something up his sleeve, probably had the whole family in on it but him. Whatever it was, he wanted no part in it. These little plans that Grayson would normally throw together for a Gala ended in disaster, like with the 'set Roy and Jay up' night, nearly everyone in the family went home with some form of injury. Duke and Damian hadn't spoken to Dick for a whole month after the experience. 

With a sigh, Damian moved away from the mirror and stood ramrod straight. He studied his older brother a little longer. The older held a look to him that he couldn't read; it was somewhere along the lines of smug, but with an undertone of something else entirely different, and it irked Damian that he couldn't read the second emotion behind his brother's eyes. 

"Dick, leave your brother alone." A more resonant voice called out from the hallway. The boys turned and looked at them, a bit startled. 

In the hallway stood Ethan Bennet. He was fixing the cuff of his right suit sleeve with his eyebrow raised. His brown eyes looked black in the dimly lit walkway as he smiled gently at the siblings. The man could never really seem to stay mad at the young adults called the old Wayne Manor home. Ethan truly loved this family. 

"Now, I say everyone should make their way downstairs, wouldn't want to make your father late to his parents memorial day charity event, now would we?" 

Dick chuckled and shook his head while Damian only mumbled in response before both passed the older man. Ethan smiled and ruffed at the youngest hair, earning a growl and batglare as the kid hurriedly tried getting it back into the slick and proper look it had to it before. 

\--------

The gala was in full swing by the time Marinette and made her presence known. She had been invited by her Uncle Jagged, who had grumbled something about Brucie denying him rights to a wedding. The older man seemed to be holding a grudge towards the host for tonight's party, and the idea struck Marinette as odd. She'd never heard of this Brucie before, and Jagged almost always spilled little secrets and tales of his life in Gotham before he had become 'Rock n' Roll,' his words, not her own.

"See, I always knew Brucie and Ethan would end up together, but not inviting me to their wedding! And not naming me the best man! That's a crime all on its own and so not Rock n' Roll' of them!" Penny had groaned and hid her face behind her hands. She had had it up to here with her husband's complaining in the limo, so much so that she had made herself scares once they had stepped foot inside of the lavish library that held all of Gotham's elite's. 

Now the young designer stood all her lonesome watching strangers dance and drink. She felt out of place, yes, her dress was one of a kind, and yes, it looked nearly just as pristine as every other ladies' dress, but she knew she didn't come from the same background as them. Her parents are bakers, building herself up in the fashion industry, and these people. These families that mingled around her had built themselves up decades ago. Some of them go as far back as being the founders of Gotham city when it was still only a small settlement in the American state of New Jersey. 

What with being so wrapped up in her thoughts, Marinette failed to take notice of the man standing before her. His back was turned, and he laughed heavily to whomever it was he was speaking to, and she just so happened to make a fool of herself and walk straight into his back. Her face lit up with embarrassment, and she sputtered out apologies, but she was stopped short at the fond chuckle that he let out. 

The man's brown eyes were warm and held a fond look to them. He offered out a gentle hand to Marinette, and she hesitantly took it into her own. 

"There's no need for an apology, young one, we all manage to get lost in our thoughts at times, especially in places we feel out of sorts, names Ethan, Ethan Bennet, and you are?" 

Marinette gawked at the man before him. His skin was a dark shade, darker than his light brown eyes, and he had a friendliness to him that wrapped itself around the younger woman that she wasn't expecting from anyone in this whole room. She expected everyone to be somewhat stuck up and only worried for themselves, but it seems she was proved wrong. 

There must have been something about her that gave her thoughts away, because Ethan, the ever-charming and friendly man he was, laughed gently and walked Marinette over to an unoccupied table. "No, sadly everyone else here would be worried about a wrinkle to their $2,000 suit, but not me, I don't care much for these events; I'm only here to support my husband." Ethan pointed towards the large fireplace on the back wall of the library, and there stood Jagged Stone and an unnamed black-haired man who looked to be in the middle of a laugh. 

"Bruce holds this event almost yearly on his parents' wedding anniversary." Ethan seemed to grow even fonder at the sight of his husband. His light brown eyes brightening up, and his face gaining a youthfulness that sharpened his features. Marinette could tell that he truly loved the other man. 

"Well, it looks as if I'm needed, if you'd like, I can introduce you to my step-son's." 

"Son's as in more than one?" Marinette gasped as her eyes widened. 

"Oh, yes... ah, there's one of them- Dick, come here." 

A taller and lightly tanned man smiled and skillfully maneuvered himself around the crowd and stopped short once he stood before his step-father and Marinette. 

The smile on his face brightened once he noticed the shorter woman standing before him. If anything, it was rather contagious and caused everyone around them to smile just as brightly. 

Marinette froze up as the stranger named Dick pulled her into a tight hug. Though the hug was warm and seemed friendly, Marinette couldn't help but tense up at physical contact from a man she had just met, but the older man didn't seem to take notice of this. He soon let go and pulled Ethan into a hug of his own. The brown-eyed man chuckled softly and patted his sons back. 

"Dick, I would like you to meet Marinette. She arrived here with Jagged and his wife, Penny. I would love to stick with her and discuss all the dirty little secrets of the elite's of Gotham, but I'm afraid that your father is beckoning me." At those words, everyone turned to look at the fireplace on the back wall where Jagged had been only minutes ago and now stood a lonely Bruce Wayne. The man leaned against the fireplace with a champagne fluke held in one of his hands as he looked steadily at the flames that danced as if controlled by magic—the sight before her memorized Marinette. Bruce Wayne was indeed a beautiful man, but he also held a weight to his shoulders that only spoke of secrets. 

"Don't worry; I'll take good care of her, dad." 

Ethan rolled his eyes and patted his step-son's shoulder before departing the younger adults for his husband, who had turned and met the other halfway. The two exchanged a gentle kiss before being greeted by an evening reporter. 

"Gross, now, my dear lady, shall we?" Dick crossed his arms and motioned towards the table to ask Marinette if she would like to take her seat.

Marinette laughed softly and nodded her head. Her gently placed curls bounced from the movement, and her face brightened up considerably. "Why, of course, my good sir." Giggles fell from both as they carefully took their seats. Their heads bent down in silent conversation as they silently watched all the elites mingle among one another. 

\--------

"Oh, you should've seen it chipmunk! Jason was pink for nearly a week! A week and Tim nearly hospitalized for the prank he pulled on Jay." Dick laughed loudly, and his head was thrown back as tears slowly slid down his cheeks. He and Marinette have been sitting at the table for nearly an hour, quietly (not really) sharing embarrassing stories of their friends and family. 

One of the unnamed daughters had stopped by and ruffled Dicks hair before walking away. The woman had been beautiful. Her short black hair framing her sharp jawline perfectly. And her evening dress and complimented her shape wonderfully, Marinette had instantly completed a design solely for the woman; she had meant to ask for the Asian woman's name, but the thought had fled her mind as soon as her new friend had fired up another round of storytelling.

"By the way," Marinette stopped for a breath, still breathless from the past three stories that had been shared between the both of them, "who was that woman who ruffed your hair?" She asked as she wiped away a stray year of laughter from her cheek. She was thankful she had barely even put on much makeup for tonight. 

"That," wiping a year of his own from his cheek as he turned to find the topic of their discussion, "was my younger sister, Cassandra, but everyone calls her Cass." He nodded towards the direction of a window that faced out towards the bay beyond the library. Cassandra stood there before the window. Her arms were crossed over her chest as she seemed to silently listen in on a conversation between a shorter black haired male and a taller tanned male with the deepest green for his eyes. "And those fine young men with her are two of my younger brothers. The short one is Tim, don't let his height fool you, he's well into his early twenties, and the taller one, that's Damian, the youngest out of us." 

Marinette's heart fluttered at the sight of the youngest Wayne. Everything about him screamed mysterious, and it reminded her so much of Robin. Both these boys seemed to hold this incredible burden on their shoulders, one that very literally weighed them down. Though Robin did stand tall, if you caught him off guard, you could always see the slouch in his shoulders and the downcast look that would fall upon his face, and she bet that this Damian was the same way.

Marinette let a pained groan as she slowly slid down into her chair. Her gaze had left the crowded window area and landed down onto her skirt covered lap. Out of all the people, she had to fall for a billionaire's son and had to have a crush for two people. One of them she didn't even know his actual civilian identity for, god was she such a fucking mess. She couldn't believe herself. 

"What's that sound for, Bitsy." 

Both occupants at the table tensed up. Dick paled significantly and Marinette slowly raised her head to look at the older male before her. No one had ever called her bitsy, no one but the vigilante Nightwing that was. It had been a name she had expected the Red Hood to place upon her, but no, the more cheery out of the whole bat-clan had. 

"Did- are…" 

"Shit, I'm normally not this bad." 

Both were now panicking; they didn't know what to do and didn't know where to go from here, so when the small group made their way over from the table, both had let out an audible sigh of relief and happily emerged the others into their now, none actual conversation. 

"Grayson and ms." Damian held his hands behind his back as he looked down at the two sitting at the table. His eyebrow was raised as he took notice of the tense atmosphere going around. 

"D, she knows… I let it slip…" 

The Wayne siblings, all except for Cassandra, groaned, the only Wayne Daughter's facepalmed and walked away in disappointment, but not before hitting her older brother on the back of the head and gently patting Marinette's shoulder. A small smile was dancing across her lips as she passed by the younger female. 

"This certainly wasn't how I was hoping this would go." Damian squared his shoulders before pulling out a chair and taking a seat himself, and just like Marinette had predicted before, his shoulders slouched ever so slightly, as well as his face going downcast, but nearly as soon as the look had set, had his standard unreadable mask fall back into place. 

"I can only assume that you'll be able to predict who the rest of us are." 

Marinette giggled and shook her head. Her.mood instantly brightened up from Damian's words. The young man wasn't much different from that of his heroic persona; it kind of relieved Marinette. It meant that Damian wouldn't be hiding who he indeed was from her.

"Oh, believe me, shaytan, if I weren't Dick, who gave your little nightly activities away, it would've been you and your peculiar way of speaking." 

Damian cursed as his brothers laughed. Everything seemed fine, or it would be until they let the big bat know of their mistake, but that could be dealt with at a later time. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay, so I started the Batman series and instantly fell in love with Ethan Bennet, and yes, I do know of my boys demise, I'm going to ignore it because I really love him. Like I started simping the instant I saw him, and his and Bruce's chemistry, so I made them husband's.


	14. what happens to me happens to you

People say whatever happens to your soulmate happens to you, no, you don't gain their bruises or their minor scratches, no. What happens is if your soulmate dies, you die the same way. No, someone doesn't up and walk up to you and shoot you at the exact moment it happened to your other half. No, their fatal injury finds its way onto you, so yes, in a way, their bruises did find their way onto you, but not the kind anyone wanted. If you or your destined went missing, the other went missing as well. No one was sure where you went. The running theory was that, once either one of you disappeared, you followed after, but no one ever confirmed, the experience was usually traumatizing for either person.

Not many people found their other half, what, with no distinguishing words on the inner side of your wrist, or music playing in your head, to even the red strings of faint guiding you in the right direction. No, either you got death or going missing and potentially meeting your soulmate. The system was rigged. 

Most everyone didn't want to search for their soulmate. They didn't see the point in it anyway, because as far as they were concerned, the experience almost always led to both of their deaths or knowledge that neither wanted ever to talk about again, leading to not wanting to be near one another. It wasn't fair, and a ten-year-old Marinette started up at her parents as she bled out on their kitchen floor. 

Everything had been going perfectly well in the bakery. The Dupain-Cheng's had just whipped up a quick lunch for their daughter and her friends when it happened. Their little girl, laughing a steady laugh with her placed against her friend, Nino's shoulder had suddenly stopped as screams of pain, left her lips before she crumpled to the ground. Marinette was covered in stab wounds, and her face was nearly swollen to the point that it pained anyone in the room to look upon her. 

Once the shock of the moment had worn off, both parents rushed to the floor and clutched their motionless daughter into their arms. Her friends, the poor young boys, stood in horrored silence, tears streaking down their cheeks as they were too frozen to do anything. They couldn't even take their eyes off of the girl that they deemed like their sister. 

That night had been the worst night of their lives. The Dupain-Cheng's had lost their daughter, Nino, and Kim had witnessed the death of a friend and her soulmate.

Marinette's funeral was held that Saturday, nearly everyone down their whole block had shown. All grieving in some way, even strangers who had met her all of once had shown up. The little girl with dark black-blue hair had offered them a light of which they had never seen before, and they wished to cherish the youthfulness of her life. 

For a whole month, the Dupian-Cheng's did not open the doors to their bakery. For an entire month, an unknown businessman would stop by and place cherry blossoms at their door. He, too, seemed as if he had gone through a loss of losing a child. They never interacted. The grieving parents would sit up on their couch and watch as the man, with black hair and sad blue eyes would silently stand at their bakeries front door, the cherry blossoms limp in his hold before gently placing them down and walking away. The stranger's presence could even be spotted at their daughters' grave, but instead of cherry blossoms laid gently against their daughters' marker, they instead found blue hyacinths; the message was clear, the stranger was apologizing for something, but that something they didn't know. After the hyacinth's had appeared was when the sad man had stopped showing up. After nearly two months of seeing him, he had disappeared, but in his place, Marinette stood. 

The young girl was shivering and looking around in a daze. She sat at her grave, her burial outfit spotless, as if she hadn't spent however long it would've taken her to break open the top of her coffin and to crawl her way out of the ground, but it was evident that she had somehow found her way out. The earth beside her was disturbed, no longer were their small patches of grass growing over where she had been resting, instead were now heaps of upturned dirt.

The Dupain-Cheng's didn't think to ask questions, a miracle had been bestowed upon them, they had their baby girl back, and everything would be okay, or as okay as they could get back to being. So, without so much as a second thought, the once grieving parents wrapped their daughter into their arms and made their way over towards their home. They would deal with whatever her awakening from death would bring tomorrow.

\----------

Three days had passed since Marinette had returned to the land of the living, and three whole days of which she had not so much as spoken a single word to her parents. The young girl usually just sat at their living room window and looked out longingly, as if she saw something, possibly even searching for answers. The Dupian-Cheng's didn't know what to do; they had contacted the government officials, letting them know of their daughter's miraculous revival from death. They set up a therapy session with a professional. How this person would be able to help their daughter through her traumas of dying and rising back from her death, slumber was beyond them, but they were hopeful none-the-less. 

Marinette's friends had been notified, and the two kids had jumped at the fact that their persuado sister was back. Nino and Kim had rushed on over to the bakery but had been denied entry by two anxious parents. The kids had been told of the young girl's condition and had been reluctant to back away, but the two had understood that their friend would need time, so they backed down and gripped each other's hand as they walked away. The two boys glanced behind them and took sight of Marinette sitting at the window, her face directed towards the street before her, but her eyes were unseeing. She didn't seem to even be in their world. 

A few more days went by, Marinette was now considered a living citizen in Paris. Her grave had been removed from the cemetery, and she was expected to start school back up in the next month, but from the looks of it, the blue-eyed girl was nowhere near ready for being surrounded by a cluster of children. She still had yet to speak, had, however, to take notice of her surroundings. The poor girl walked around as if she wasn't seeing her surroundings; no, she never bumped into furniture. Marinette moved around them as if the object wasn't even there. 

Her parents watched on with downcast expressions. They still awaited the day Marinette would take notice of her surroundings and would open up whatever film laid over her unseeing, seeing eyes. 

The day that their daughter spoke her first words since coming back was a saddening day for the French couple. Marinette had been sitting in her usual spot on the couch. Her face was turned towards the window as if she had expected someone who would never show. The Dupian-Cheng's were busy preparing to open their doors for the first time in over two months. Sabine had stepped out of the bakery and into the living room to check on Marinette when she saw it. Her young daughter's whole body had shaken as if fighting off a nasty chill, her Blue eyes blinked slowly, and she slowly looked around in confusion. Her lips pulled into a tight frown as her eyebrows furrowed further as if she wasn't happy with what she was seeing. Sabine had silently motioned for her husband, too afraid that if she made any noise, then she would break whatever miracle that pulled her daughter out of her endless daze. 

"W-where is he?" 

Marinette's voice, rough from not being used in such a lengthy time, had called out slowly as she continued to look around. Her once confused look was turning into distress as the minutes ticked by. Her large blue eyes began to tear up as she hastily stood from her seat and turned in circles. Shaking hands reached up into black-blue hair and tugged roughly at her pig-tails. Her breathing became rapped and short as she silently continued to mouth, 'where is he.' 

Both adults rushed to hold their daughter but backed away once the sight of Marinette flinching back at their touch caught their eyes, so the two parents stood back and watched helplessly as the ten-year-old continued to panic over an unknown boy. 

"Where is who, sweetie? Who are you looking for?" Sabine spoke gently as she placed a hand on her chest. At her mother's voice, Marinette broke out into sobs and crumpled to the floor. She curled up into a fetal position and began to rock gently as her hands clenched down at the fuzzy carpeting beneath her. 

"Da-Damian, where is he? Where's my soulmate!" 

After that day, the Dupain-Cheng's learned that whatever happens to you, whether you died or went missing, you always found your way to your soulmate. They didn't share the new-found knowledge to the world; they kept it to themselves in respect for their grieving daughter, who had awakened from the boy she had spent her death with.

\------------

Back in Gotham, a young Damian Wayne was adjusting much better to his awakening from the dead. The young ex-assassin had grown accustomed to the thought of being resurrected from the dead since a young age. He had seen his grandfather and mother dip into the Lazareth Pit many times during his upbringing with the League of Assassins. He had even witnessed the broken life of Jason Todd being forced back into his body, but his return brought forth a change in the deadly young boy. 

No longer was Damian out for blood. His blood lust seemingly had calmed down. No longer did the youngest Wayne run around, katanas in hand as he tried ripping the life from any of his brothers. He instead took to sticking in the kitchen, Pennyworth at his side as the butler took to teaching him his way around the kitchen. 

Instead of trying to sneak out at night, stealing the batmobile, or the Robin-cycles, Damian stuck to spending time with his father and any of his siblings that happened to be in the manor. It had taken quite some time for anyone to adjust to the abrupt switch in the young boy's personality change; none had even been brave enough to question what had come over the youngest Wayne. 

Everyone had been walking around Damian as if they were walking on eggshells. Never too sure on when he would break out of whatever mental affliction had taken place during his process of being resurrected. It very much annoyed the young boy, and he let out a quiet, 'tt,' as he made his way into the bat-cave, Titus by his side every step of the way. The current boy wonder took his seat at a lab station and crossed his arms over his chest. A huff of frustration left the boy's lips as he took sight of Grayson, the oldest dropping his practice escrima sticks to the mat under his feet. The young man smiled and made his way on over towards his youngest brother. 

"Hey little D." He spoke softly and ruffled the boy's hair in affection. The action caused a grunt of displeasure from Damian, but he in no way stopped Grayson. He merely sat and waited for the gloved hands of his brother to leave his hair. The action startled Dick, but he didn't let his surprise known, at least, not in words. 

Soon enough, everyone else in the family found their way into the cave—all in the process of either preparing for patrol or sitting out due to a healing injury. The only one not to move from their spot was Damian; he remained seated at the lab station as he looked down at his lap. The silent boy's mind had been elsewhere for the last two months, always thinking of the blue-eyed girl he had come to learn to be his soulmate. The tiny French-Asian girl had helped him open up, helped him calm down, and see the beauty in life. See, the smallest of things bring immense joy to his cold heart. He missed her, and he missed her smile, the bright laugh that would take over her, and the little sliver of tongue that would stick from between her lips when she was concentrated. 

Though Damian and Marinette, he had learned his soulmate's name to be. Having been dead only a little over two months, the two had spent a lifetime together. In death, time passed much faster. In under a week, the two were pre-teens, running around and causing mayhem. In two weeks, they were teenagers, Marinette had built up her fashion career, and Damian, without the mantle of Robin, had built up a career in business while he had a side business in painting. 

After the first month, the two were adults. Both had made a name for themselves. Though Damian had ties to the Wayne name, he still made it big on his own. Though, he held ties into the Wayne Enterprises business share hold. He had made it big in his painting career. He had galleries almost everywhere that had sections dedicated to his craftsmen's ship. 

As they slipped into the second month of death, Marinette and Damian had started a family. Both, now in their early to late thirties, had a set of twins. A little girl, who looked too much like her father, and a son who was the spitting image of his mother. They were happy, and as the second month pulled to an end, was when the two soulmates were ripped apart. Their life in their world after death had shattered. Their family broke apart, and back to reality, they had gone. Though Damian adjusted to the change faster than Marinette, it didn't mean it was easy for him. The Wayne heir had had his dark days. Days when he could not be found. Damian would hide away in a room he had claimed as his own, surrounded by paintings upon paintings. 

Those days were the hardest for him. He would be so wrapped up in the fantasy that his death had created for him and his soulmate that he nearly forgot what was real and what was a dream. On those days, he spent hours upon hours painting the family that he had had. The family that he no longer had. 

"I need to go to Paris." 

Everyone in the cave froze. They all turned to Damian, and the boys green-eyes had pools of tears gathering as he struggled to keep himself in check. Small sniffles left his lips as he rubbed aggressively at his eyes. No one knew what to say, what to do. They all came to a slump when seeing the youngest out of them close to tears. The family had never dealt with this situation before, and it pained them when their minds drew to a blank at the sight of tears in Damian's unnaturally green eyes. 

"What's in Paris?" Jason had spoken up, surprising everyone, including himself, when he was the first to break the silence. Though the two were close because of their ties to the league, they had never acted friendly towards one another. The two brothers could not be in a fight, and in the two months of Damian being around, Jason had taken to sticking to the young boy's side. As if scared, the other would disappear. 

"My soulmate." He whispered as he finally let his tears flow. 

Damian curled into himself, and his small body began to shake. The family was instantly set to work on getting themselves to France.

\-----------

Life in Paris had almost gone back to normal, or as normal as could be for the Dupain-Cheng's. Marinette had started up back into school, only going twice a week, as everyone had agreed it would be best for her to slowly be broken back into the normalcy of life after the resurrection. 

Everyone at school had been slightly hesitant to let the former dead girl into their ranks. They would steer clear of her on the days she showed up. Would hold their breaths as if afraid she would start letting out the horrible stench of death, run from her as if scared she would take a chunk out of them. The only ones to stick to Marinette, as if attached by glue, were Nino and Kim. They had greeted their friend with open arms. The actions of her friends pulled the first smile anyone had seen on her lips. 

Now was the first week of Marinette's official return to school. Everyone was beginning to accept the French-Asian girl back into their lives, now realizing that she was not a zombie out to steal their brains. Though they were all friendly towards her, they didn't seek her out anymore, and she was okay with that. Marinette was completely content with sticking to her protectors, Kim, and Nino. 

At the end of her first official week, Marinette had been pulled back into her love for designing. Her early work had been a set of baby onesies; once she had completed them, she had stared blankly at them as her memories of her life after her death. Her children, of which she merely dreamed up, still holding a special place in her heart. 

Antoine, the son who was her spitting image, who had his father's beautiful green eyes, had been the oldest twin. He had loved to stay up late to watch either of his parents work. The young boy had quickly picked up both of his parent's talents and very nearly passed the two of them up with his skills. Her son, Antoine, had the confidence of his father, he was bold and outgoing, but he had the heart of his mother that he hid behind his pride. And then came her daughter, Maryam, who looked so much like her father, all the way down to his eyes. She was a timid soul, soft-spoken, and stuck close to Damian's side. The sweet thing picked up acting and was marvelous at it. She had started in her mother's fashion commercials, always the little girl who gasped in awe at the article of clothing. Though Maryam had her mother's personality, she had her father's anger and protective nature, and boy, where the twins a force to be reckoned with when angered. 

Marinette had sobbed over the memories of a time that had never been. She had cried so severely that she had made herself sick. 

The young designer hid the two onesies away from sight, only bringing them out when she was alone and in desperate need to steady herself. As time passed, things began to come easier, she rarely ever needed to pull out the two tiny outfits, but she still did; it brought her peace to think of the life that was waiting for her and her soulmate. Speaking of soulmate, Marinette had yet to see him; nearly two months had gone by since her awakening. Two whole months of feeling incomplete, her second half was out there in Gotham, a place her parents had banned her from going to. Damian was on his own, and she didn't like the thought of that. Yes, the boy had his own family that loved him dearly, but he was just as incomplete as her. Both of them could feel the missing piece in their heart. 

Yes, Marinette was awaiting the day she would get to see Damian once again. Awaited the time that the two would spend together getting to relearn everything and anything about one another, she just didn't know that that day was dawning upon her. 

The day she would see the familiar green eyes was a day full of tears. Marinette had made her way to the park, sketchbook in hand, as she waited for lunch to start back up. Yes, the young designer had snuck out during her break, but she couldn't help it. Though she loved her two best friends, the two had begun to smother her with their overprotective nature, and being around, so many people, so many people who had regarded her as a zombie not too long ago, had made anxiety bubble up in her stomach. So, while no one was watching, Marinette slipped out of the front of the school. 

Once Marinette had taken a seat on a park bench and had pulled out her sketch pad did her imagination began to run wild. Today, it seemed she wasn't in the mood for clothing; instead, she drew her family. The family that the afterlife her had built. A stray year fell from her glistening blue-eyes as she passed to look down upon the faces of her future. The smile that she had drawn upon Antoine's face, so much like his father's, while the gentle smirk upon her Maryam's was not unlike her own. Even herself and Damian had smiled of their own, gracing their lips as they held onto their children. 

"An exquisite drawing, if I may say so myself." A voice spoke gently by her side. A voice that sounded far too young, but none-the-less familiar. 

Hands no shaking, Marinette placed her sketch pad to the side and wiped at her cheeks as she looked up and into those all too familiar green eyes. Her soulmate had found her. She knew it wouldn't be hard for him. Damian had the money, and he had every possible way of getting to her. Either it is through his father, or the Zeta-tube's that he had told Marinette about once he had revealed his vigilante identity. 

"Damian," Marinette whispered out. She gently reached out and placed a hand of her own against her soulmate's cheek; the boy leaned into the touch and smiled gently as he pulled the smaller girl into a hug. 

"Hello, Thiên thần." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to make a second part that revolved around the time Jon went missing and then came back as a seventeen year old with Nino and Kim disappearing with him, but I don't know enough about that storyline to go through with it, and also, I'm rather pissed with the fact that DC pulled at move.


End file.
